Happy #Birthday--or should we say, #HyvääSyntymäpäivää!--to Finnish composer Jean #Sibelius on the anniversary of his birth! During the composer’s centennial year (1965), Leonard #Bernstein presented a “Tribute to Sibelius” in a televised Young People’s Concert with the New York Philharmonic. Bernstein spoke about Sibelius’ most famous composition, #Finlandia: “Like many other pieces of his, [Finlandia] was a part of that national revolution; and in fact it proved to be so exciting to the Finnish audiences, with its warlike rhythms and its inspiring, hymn-like middle part, that for a while the Russian authorities had to forbid performances of it…It was like dynamite; and we are told that it did more to bring about Finnish independence finally than a thousand speeches and pamphlets. And so we play it now, in honor of Sibelius and of the free people of #Finland. https://youtube/watch?v=EK9Z9-iOU4I
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 16:46:00 +0000
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