I’m sorry, I’ve been so busy lately, and if I don’t get started on these posts first thing in the morning, it’s very hard for me to write anything of consequence that reads well. Generally speaking, the earlier I write, the better. Best is when it’s so early, I can’t even think. Just sit down with a cup of coffee and let those fingers go.

But life is such that I can’t always do that. Which is why, for Gustav Mahler’s birthday, here I am at 11:00 a.m., sharing a video of Yoda, Gandalf, and Voldemort conducting the “Resurrection” Symphony. Hey, don’t let it be said that I don’t do my part to popularize the classics.

And it’s not like it’s that farfetched. Dismiss the concept, if you’d like, as puerile nonsense, but it would take wizards of this magnitude to translate the work’s emotional grandeur into images worthy of its transcendent power, even if the music itself is more seismic, uplifting, and transformative than anything that could possibly be expressed on a motion picture screen.

Let me know which of the three you think has the best technique, if you’re so inclined, and happy birthday, Gustav Mahler.