One of my favorite works is Richard Strauss' Eine Alpensinfonie. It think it is a perfectly symmetrical composition - with the majestic climax occurring in the middle of the piece. The first half, of course, opens with a stupendous sunrise, and continues to follow the climber (climbers?) up the mountain - through woods, along streams, across waterfalls, alpine meadows - until the summit is reached. Then, after some introspection about the insignificance of man in such a scene of nature, we are treated to the view from the apex, delivered by the battery of horns and the huge orchestral forces. This part never fails to take my breath away. We now go on the descent, with the music taking us down the hill, and the piece slowly fades away into the "night sounds" and all is still. As I mentioned, the work itself takes the shape of the mountain it describes.
But this is to digress - my topic stems from the cataclysmic storm through which we struggle after leaving the summit - a sort of balancing section on the back side to the flurry of activity on the earlier, upside, of the work. At any rate, this musical depiction of a rainstorm - thunder, lightning, what-have-you - is the most powerful I know.
There are storms in Beethoven's Sixth, in Rossini's William Tell Overture, in Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite, etc. Strauss' appears to me to out-power them all by a long shot.
So - question - are there other examples of storms depicted in music which should be heard? And, particularly, any by the unsungs?
