Later commentators also found much to praise in "The Oceanides." Guy Rickards describes the tone poem as an "extraordinary score", magnificent yet subtle in its depiction of the sea's various moods, but nonetheless "music suffused by light", while Robert Layton sees the piece as "far more ambitious and highly organized in design" than its immediate predecessor, "The Bard". Tawaststjerna notes Sibelius's success at characterizing the sea: the "playful flutes" that bring the oceanides to life but which feel "alien" in the landscape's vastness; the "powerful swell" of wind and water conveyed by oboe and clarinet over undulating strings and harp glissandi; the sustained wind chord symbolizing the "limitless expanse of the sea"; and, the "mighty climax" of the storm, the final wave crash which "always exceeds one's expectations". The Finnish composer Kalevi Aho has argued in favor of the D major Yale version, feeling as though the piece loses "something essential" in terms of orchestral color in D major: "The orchestral tone in D major is veiled, somehow mysterious and impressionistic. Compared with it D major sounds clearer, but also more matter-of-fact". The conductor Osmo Vänskä also has noted the difference between the two keys, comparing the D major version to a "large lake" and the D major to a "mighty ocean".