Whenever I think of Leif Segerstam, one of the greatest musical geniuses ever born (he won the prestigious Maj Lind Competition in both violin and piano in two successive weeks!!, plays recorder and trumpet, has a fine tenor voice, perfect pitch and rhythm, and on top of that composes and conducts – how can so much talent be present in one single person??), I also think about his famous “Segerstamisms.”
In one of his nearly 300 symphonies (yes, he is in the Guinness Book), there was an aleatoric passage. When a musician asked him when he should refrain from playing, Leif replied: “When I look at you stoppingly.” There’s even a whole website dedicated to Segerstamisms – highly recommended reading, showcasing this brilliant person’s wit and intellect.
Leif has been part and parcel of BIS since his twenties (he’ll be 70 this year). One of the earliest productions was LP-21 (now CD-21), where he and Okko Kamu (another Finnish genius) were the soloists in Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins. Since both had essentially only prepared the first violin part (though the parts are very similar), they agreed to switch roles in the middle of the second movement. This was done with such finesse that no one has noticed it in over 40 years!
These works on this album are vintage Segerstam – Romantic in spirit, superbly performed by their dedicatees, and conducted by, well, of course…
