A small aside from Sibelius...

For over a year now I have been a big fan of Finnish figure skater Kiira Korpi. She has been looming in the background at international competitions for a while, including 14th place at the 2006 Olympics and 10th place at the 2006 World Championships.

Now she has finally emerged into the limelight, winning the Bronze Medal at the European Championships held in Poland.

It seems to me that for many years, "women's" figure skating has seemed more like a gymnastics competition, with little girls jumping around with varying degrees of athleticism but with very little emotion or artistry. I sincerely hope that Kiira Korpi's emergeance signals a new era of skaters like Nancy Kerrigan and Katerina Witt, where artistry was first and foremost, decorated here and there by a few jumps.

Oh... why Kiira Korpi? Well, she's Finnish, and, well, her name fits rhytmically perfectly into the first movement of the 4th symphony, the ascending major-key horn call, a breif moment of winter sunshine.

Winter sunshine indeed. I write this from the concert hall in Kuusankoski where we have bright sun, -10C and beautiful snow (hum... not indoors of course).

You mention the ascending horn motif from the first movement. But surely that starts with a triplet (score is at home)? And yet her surname is stressed on the first syllable... Perhaps the ascending horn call at the start of the Fifth might fit better?

But the link with the Fourth Symphony almost exists in another sphere: after all, parts of the finale (e.g. the horn chorale) were adapted from the unfinished Poe setting, The Raven, and the Finnish word for raven is, er, Korppi. OK, not exactly the same, but close enough, I guess...

You are so right about that triplet.

My bad... that would therefore sound: kii-ra-kor PI....

I like your 5th Symphony idea:

KII-ra Kor-pi wins the bronze...

Honestly, I could think about this all day. As a matter of fact, I think I will, with some outside inspiration, of course.

mm. Nice touch with the pictures. As if I'm not busy enough, now I have to go find more pictures of this Finnish beauty. Oh lord.

I wonder what Sibelius would have exclaimed after a glance at her?