Happy birthday, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov! I’ve always been a fan.

Recommended Rimsky playlist:

Ormandy and the “Procession of the Nobles” from “Mlada”

Song of the Viking Guest from “Sadko,” with Mark Reizen

Lots of intoxicating music in this staged performance of “Sadko” (complete, Gergiev conducting)

Ernest Ansermet conducts the Symphony No. 2 “Antar,” a haunting work, full of beautiful melodies, that was once much better known

Leopold Stokowski conducts the “Russian Easter Festival Overture,” employing a bass-baritone in place of a trombone solo, for maximum liturgical effect

Evgeny Mravinsky conducts a suite from “The Invisible City of Kitezh”

Mikhail Pletnev in Rimsky’s little-known gem, the Quintet for Piano and Winds

Lily Pons sings the “Hymn to the Sun” from “Le coq d’or”

Leif Segerstam conducts “Scheherazade,” with a highly unconventional, piratical conclusion

“Flight of the Bumblebee” with real bees (!), courtesy of The Lost Fingers