Music: Who's on First?

In Canberra, Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra played to a packed house. The concert program listed Sibelius' Symphony No. 2, to be followed by Tchaikovsky. But, because of a last-minute switch in conductors, there was an unannounced change in the schedule: Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony became the major work, followed by Berlioz' Hungarian March. Sibelius—whose disciplined power is poles apart from the romantic extravagance of Tchaikovsky—was off the program entirely.

Next morning, readers of the Canberra Times were startled to see Critic Peter Bailey's review of Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 ("The themes are catching and developed with simplicity and beauty . . ....