Thanks to Kullervopete for sorting out the confusion! The Hallé in those days probably served BH well, with all their Sibelius work under Barbirolli. (And how excellent that they are on good form these days too with Mark Elder.)

I remember the Sibelius Centenary celebrations in 1965. Barbirolli gave some fine Sibelius with his Halle Orchestra, but I can't recall Haitink ever conducting the Halle. Eward Clark seems to remember Haitink doing Sibelius 2 with the London P. O. years ago on a tour of Japan, so will we ever know the truth!-kp

Pure speculation, but it has occured to me that perhaps Haitink did not want to conduct Sibelius simply because he is known as a Mahler interpreter. If he conducted Sibelius, he would at some point have to comment on the whole "World" vs. "Inner Logic" thing, a question on which he may not have felt comfortable elaborating.

That is an interesting thought. I can understand Haitink recording the Shostakovitch Symphonies, these are after all very much in the Mahlerian mould. But then the maestro has also given us some distinguished Vaughan Williams, a composer who by his own admission followed the Sibelian path and detested Mahlers music.--kp