Just what we need: a Covid symphony
mainLeif Segerstam, the prolific Finn, has delivered his symphony no 339, ‘Coronavirus chaoticlies in prisonic moods.’
Published here.
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A four page score of pure by hand rubbish.
For promotion only…
Aleatorism isn’t rubbish…
True, it’s the other way around.
Have you seen Janacek’s manuscripts. His operas and other works are masterful, but how anyone deciphered them is beyond comprehension.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2001/Oct01/Glyndebourne.htm
Maybe the works are actually written by the musicologists who deciphered the manuscripts.
Leif is an amazing man and conductor. Hats off to him.
EAT your heart out, Haydn lovers. #339!
With Segerstam, composing is rather a digestive process.
I wonder: did he compose it for a covid-era sized and distanced orchestra?
Segerstam makes Haydn look like Duparc.
One might think he’s a bit obsessive.
Good conductor, though….
He’s more than a “good” conductor, but I take your point. Excellent with Sibelius, the Russians etc.
Wonder whether it is Programmmusik?
I pity the editor who will have to decifer the handwritten score, and extract each individual part.
By the time he or she finishes, another pandemic will probably invade us all again !
Check it out here:
https://nuotisto.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/store/7723487c06eb4ebe742e58c33075574668d8e49a30a918eb5f9416f0ab30.pdf
How will Leif go on after lockdown?
any chance of a cycle of all his symphonies ?
No.
No chance, and no need.
His time will come.
Imagine the music reviewer forced to listen to 339 symphonies (and counting) by any one composer. Sounds like a punishment that would fit right into Dante’s Inferno…
My fly on the wall informs me that it is not Segerstam that’s played in hell, but Xenakis and Neuwirth.
Purgatorio is furnished with little cubicles, where the souls are forced to listen to Boulez and Pintscher, after which they can confess their sins and either go up or go down, according to life statistics.
Great, now we have a symphony to go along with this concerto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeSnfWzNe-Y
Hilarious. Best laugh I’ve had all week!
Are any of his symphonies any good, or is his work just a mechanistic “compose-by-numbers” (like those old Paint-by-Numbers watercolor kits they used to sell) type of thing designed to make headlines get him into record books, but without any real artistic inspiration or merit?
Segerstam recommends his Symphony No. 253. It is on Youtube: https://youtu.be/2v7Ht2W8Z6E
The character of his symphonies seems to have always been inspired by pandemic catastrophes, he was ahead of his time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faMFoG314tc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGqQtnYYnH4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAydCG0KTdQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v7Ht2W8Z6E
ouldn’t we just re-tool one of Hovhaness’s? Say, St. Helens or An Irruption for all Seasons”? Well, Eruption, then. Well, now, there, then. So far Gustavo gets my vote for “His time will come.” Go, Gus! Both of you. Just get out!
What I noticed about Segerstam when he conducted here is how much he looks like Brahms from behind, but everyone knows the best conductor from behind is Salonen.
He may look like Brahms but he is the only living composer who understands Rott’s “Sehr langsam – Belebt”.
https://bis.se/conductors/segerstam-leif/rott-symphony-in-e-major
And he is the only living conductor who knows how it feels to be a disregarded composer.
I love your comments, Edgar! (Although I am a big fan of Hovhaness and like his works more than I do Segerstam’s.)
I can’t wait for the SF Symphony to start concertizing so’s I can check out Esa-Pekka’s behind. On your recommendation, of course….