“Leif Segerstam has a fine feeling for the breadth and depth of Korngold’s intricate orchestrations and the nervous, erotic tension of his personal form of expressionism.”
— BBC Music Magazine on the Naxos recording of Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt performed by the Royal Swedish Opera under Leif Segerstam.
Born in 1944, Leif Segerstam studied violin, piano, composition and conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, followed by postgraduate studies at The Juilliard School of Music in New York under Morel, Persinger, Overton and Persichetti.
He began his conducting career in the opera houses of Helsinki, Stockholm and West Berlin, and early guest appearances took him to the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the major European opera houses including La Scala and Covent Garden.
He was chief conductor of the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1975–82, and of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1977 to 1987, with which he maintains close contact as principal guest conductor. From 1983–89 he served as general music director of the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz (Germany) and is still their honorary guest conductor.
His operatic work has included appearances at the Wiener Staatsoper and the royal theatres of Copenhagen and Stockholm. From 1988 to 1995 Mr Segerstam was chief conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. From the 1995/96 season he was appointed chief conductor and musical director at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and chief conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2001 he was appointed Chief Conductor at the Finnish National Opera.
Leif Segerstam is also a prolific composer in his own right of over fifty symphonies, string quartets, piano and string concertos and a host of other works.
For Marco Polo, Leif Segerstam has recorded the works of the forgotten French romantics and impressionists Koechlin, Roger-Ducasse, Rabaud, Aubert, Schmitt and Caplet. His Da Capo/Marco Polo joint productions include recordings of works by Borup-Jorgensen (Naxos 8.224030), Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Rasmussen and Sorensen (Naxos 8.224039).
Most notably, Leif Segerstam astonished the opera world with his release of the first digital recording of Korngold’s luminous Die Tote Stadt on Naxos Opera Classics.
Released in June 2010 (UK only): Chill With Collection (Naxos 8.501046, 10-CD box set); in June 2010 (internationally): Meditation (Naxos 8.508010, 8-CD box set)