Thunder

Not orchestral, but I am very fond of this...

yeti42 posted:

My system is just recovering having been mostly unplugged for over a week because of holiday and the wondering thunder storms we've had recently, which where I was were something of a disappointment. I did take the opportunity to rearrange my stacks a bit however, which seems to have increased the sense of scale and impact.

With a Visit to Longborough coming up for the Flying Dutchman I've been listening to a bit of Wagners this week and was rather impressed by the thunder roll (on timpani and other drums by the sound of it) at the end of Rhinegold from the Goodall Ring when Donner clears the air. Can anyone suggest other good examples of orchestral thunder?

I was at Longborough yesterday, a beautiful place to have an opera house.

Not thunder, but the bells at the end of the transformation music in the first act of Parsifal, on the recording conducted by Rafael Kubelik, make a very impressive sound, turn up good and loud!

I don't know the origin of the thunder in Perfect Sense from Roger Waters' Amused To Death album (likely not orchestral) but the Q-sound phasing manages to give it a very realistic rolling effect as well as making it sound as if coming from above in the soundscape. Impressive.

Side three of Out Of The Blue - Concerto For a Rainy Day;

Be sure to go for the Stan Ricker vinyl cut. 

Another favourite record, somewhat different to the above, but with some great thunder effects from the percussion is Britten's Noye's Fludde;

A superb, atmospheric and vivid recording too from the Decca crew. 

I’ve never heard Amused to death, I’d got rather tired of Roger Waters by then though I do have Radio Kaos and Music from the Body I never got round to his second solo album, maybe the time has come. 

The Britten is one I’ve not come across though I’d picked up a fair few other recordings of his work, mostly for 50p each from the local Oxfam before vinyl became fashionable again. I’ll have to look out for that one.

I was never an ELO fan. Maybe one to stream first as I’m not sure I need that album.

Since we’re going beynd orchestral now I’ll forestall Riders on the Storm, that has long been a favourite.

I believe they are playing tonight at Donnington

and knowing the download festival as I do, there will probably be some thunder as well 

good band - seen them quite a tee times 

lyndon

Of course, you get the real thing on African Sanctus

Noye's Fludde is not Britten's only storm.  There's one in St Nicolas and, of course, the fourth Sea Interlude depicts a storm.

Indeed, classical music has a fair few.  From the sublime to the ... not quite so sublime:

Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony:  fourth movement.

The mountain climbers in Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony encounter a storm near the summit of their outing.

There's a major storm in the second act of Porgy and Bess, though Gershwin concentrates on the reaction of people sheltering from it rather than just depicting the hurricane.

And Ferde Grofé's Hollywood-esque Grand Canyon Suite concludes with a ferocious desert storm.

Sorry for broadening the topic from just thunder.

Roger