Longtime followers of this page know that I tend to go a little berserk around the time of Sibelius’ birthday. In fact, for the past few years, I’ve honored “Eight Days of Sibelius,” from the start of the month to December 8 – conveniently, the actual anniversary.

Well, this year, somehow, it slipped by the wayside. I always have Sibelius’ birthday firmly in mind, but I forgot all about the “Eight Days.” Which is why you may have gotten slammed yesterday by multiple Sibelius posts, which I hope at least you found interesting or informative. There’s just so much Sibelius material to share, and I’m always setting it aside, making a mental note to save it for December. Trouble is, the memory isn’t so well-oiled as it used to be!

With that in mind, I hope you won’t turn up your nose at a little leftover birthday cake. I mentioned in one of my posts yesterday that Sibelius’ Fifth Symphony is a personal favorite. I haven’t always found Leonard Bernstein to be the ideal interpreter of Sibelius’ symphonies, but I still can’t pass up a live performance. I saw Bernstein conduct it at Carnegie Hall once, back in the 1980s, and it was a fabulous occasion, to be able to hear Lenny work his magic like some grizzled Kalevala wizard.

Here he is, with the London Symphony Orchestra, in 1966:

A sublime, ennobling start to any day – even if the interpretation may not always be my particular glass of vodka.