Sibelius gave the call of the swan to a rarely-encountered instrument, the English horn – which is actually a variant of the oboe. The choice is perfect, as the calls of the swan are stark and chilly.
Um. I don’t understand. Is the writer suggesting that the English horn is stark and chilly? Do tell!
I love The Swan of Tuonela though. I’ve performed it twice and the second time I was even happy with my playing, and I have a copy of the performance and I still like it! (I often like a performance of mine only until I hear myself and then I’m not happy. Go figure.)
That is weird. Where’d you find it?
I didn’t want to publicly “diss” someone quite so plainly, so I didn’t put up a link. But if you just cut and paste the quote into google you’ll come up with the only site that features this quote.
Maybe I’m just wimpy, but I’ve been chewed out a few times, so I’m now quite hesitant in what I do here. Am I being silly? I wonder.