Three favourite depictions of a storm in music.

[Roasted Swan]

That really is a blast from the past. My older brother had the Grand Canyon Suite on LP and I nearly played it to death. I have it on a Naxos CD but somehow it lacks the magic of that long lost LP.

There is that Telarc recording which features "real thunder claps" and rather entertainingly explains just how difficult technically it was to "find" claps of thunder without any attendant rain.  This was when Telarc liked to include sound effects on their recordings with accompanying warnings about how it would blow your speakers.... the CD included the Cloudburst movement twice - once with sound effects, once without.....

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[vandermolen]

There is that Telarc recording which features "real thunder claps" and rather entertainingly explains just how difficult technically it was to "find" claps of thunder without any attendant rain.  This was when Telarc liked to include sound effects on their recordings with accompanying warnings about how it would blow your speakers.... the CD included the Cloudburst movement twice - once with sound effects, once without.....

[asin]B000003CT1[/asin]

Sounds fun!

[pjme]

A Technicolor storm :

Miklos Rozsa:
https://www.youtube.com/v/9AnjYRbEUeA

Don't forget the thunder sheet:
Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

Notable orchestral works in which the musical instrument has been used include the following:

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie and the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten
Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.
Mozart: The Magic Flute
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Symphony in B minor "Polonia" (1903–08)
Alan Hovhaness: "Invocation to Vahakn No. 3"
Engelbert Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel
(source : Wiki)

https://www.youtube.com/v/wmmNOau9ASg

And a violent, expressionist storm with a political twist:

https://www.youtube.com/v/jbwDHpY5Ctk

Paying a musical tribute to the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967 was a matter of course for Paul Dessau. The news that the second Russian moon probe had landed in the "Sea of Tempests" on 24 December 1966 provided him not only with a title, but also with a "programme". ...
The work culminates in a high E, maintained by thirty violins throughout an intensive crescendo, to symbolize what Dessau described as the "luminosity of a very bright star"
(Source Brillant)

[kyjo]

Atterberg - Symphony no. 3, mvt. 2
Grofé - "Cloudburst" from Grand Canyon Suite
Sibelius - Tapiola (middle section)

(+Gershwin: "Hurricane" from Porgy and Bess, Bax: November Woods, etc.)

[Florestan]

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, Summer, mvt. 3
Rossini - William Tell Overture, storm section

Great minds etc. 

[Brian]

I wasn't aware of a storm there...?
(There is a "storm" in the last of Kindertotenlieder "In diesem Wetter")

The loud, boisterous passage immediately before the military-style snare drum tapping and recapitulation was originally called a "Southern Storm" in Mahler's notes. I see from Utah Symphony program notes available online that he went back and forth over whether to describe it as a storm or a purely metaphorical battle fought between the forces of spring and summer. I think it's a pretty convincing storm!

I love the finale of Atterberg's Third Symphony, but I don't like the storm movement at all - it's just too long.

[Maestro267]

Don't forget the thunder sheet:
Dramatist John Dennis devises the thundersheet as a new method of producing theatrical thunder for his tragedy Appius and Virginia at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.

Notable orchestral works in which the musical instrument has been used include the following:

Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie and the opera Die Frau ohne Schatten
Giuseppe Verdi: Otello
Richard Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen and Parsifal.
Mozart: The Magic Flute
Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Symphony in B minor "Polonia" (1903–08)
Alan Hovhaness: "Invocation to Vahakn No. 3"
Engelbert Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel
(source : Wiki)

I realize I'm going off on a tangent here, but a few other pieces that deploy the thunder sheet to great effect are Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 10 and the three works that make up James MacMillan's Triduum: The World's Ransoming, Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1 ("Vigil").

[vandermolen]

I realize I'm going off on a tangent here, but a few other pieces that deploy the thunder sheet to great effect are Havergal Brian's Symphony No. 10 and the three works that make up James MacMillan's Triduum: The World's Ransoming, Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 1 ("Vigil").

Thanks and also a vote for HB Symphony 10.

[Holden]

Great minds etc. 

Yes. Toscanini's version of the William Tell Overture immediately came to mind.

[André]

Yes. Toscanini's version of the William Tell Overture immediately came to mind.

Easily the most frightening on disc, with a final gallop to end them all.

[Florestan]

Yes. Toscanini's version of the William Tell Overture immediately came to mind.

Easily the most frightening on disc, with a final gallop to end them all.

Which one? 1939 or 1952?

[Madiel]

People have already mentioned most of the ones I could think of, except...


Thomas Linley the Younger, in his short life, did some music for The Tempest. And Arise ye spirits of the storm is a knockout.

[André]

In Walter Braunfels' opera Die Vögel (The Birds), an angry Jupiter unelashes the might of the Northern and Southern winds over the flock of rebelling birds. A quite effective scene.

[Hattoff]

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in Prokofiev's War and Peace. It's so vivid it hurts. You wouldn't want to be there.

[knight66]

Most of my favourite storms are present and correct. But I am surprised that so far no one has mentioned the Overture of Wagner's Flying Dutchman. There is also a terrific storm within the opera with the sailors stamping and making a superb din.

Mike

[vandermolen]

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in Prokofiev's War and Peace. It's so vivid it hurts. You wouldn't want to be there.

Of course! The evocative 'Snowstorm' when Prince Andrei arrives back home is also one that I should have remembered. Thank you.

Also, Sviridov's 'The Snowstorm' is worth inclusion.

[Ghost of Baron Scarpia]

There is that Telarc recording which features "real thunder claps" and rather entertainingly explains just how difficult technically it was to "find" claps of thunder without any attendant rain.  This was when Telarc liked to include sound effects on their recordings with accompanying warnings about how it would blow your speakers.... the CD included the Cloudburst movement twice - once with sound effects, once without.....

[asin]B000003CT1[/asin]

Yes, I remember their recording of the 1812 overture, on LP. So much boasting about the canons, and the groove had visible squiggles. Never had a phono cartridge that could track it. Every recording was like a bass drum concerto. It was years before I could take Telarc seriously.

[André]

Most of my favourite storms are present and correct. But I am surprised that so far no one has mentioned the Overture of Wagner's Flying Dutchman. There is also a terrific storm within the opera with the sailors stamping and making a superb din.

Mike

See reply no 9 

Not described as a storm as such, but the first movement of Mendelssohn's Scottish symphony whips the music into quite a lather. One of my favourite symphony movements.

[Symphonic Addict]

I was mentioning Nystroem's The Tempest on other threads. What an extraordinary work. You can't ask for anything more descriptive than this:

https://www.youtube.com/v/Bq-FKP-8ZV0

[vandermolen]

I was mentioning Nystroem's The Tempest on other threads. What an extraordinary work. You can't ask for anything more descriptive than this:

https://www.youtube.com/v/Bq-FKP-8ZV0

This sounds terrific Cesar. I must find my CD of the work. I was listening the other day to the 'Snowstorm' from Prokofiev's opera 'War and Peace' which has been mentioned above - a wonderfully evocative section.