# Winter Storm music



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Here in SE New England we're gearing up for the season's first blizzard - should get 15-20 " of snow, high winds, etc....
Time to break out the "winter storm music" - some of my faves:

Tchaikovsky - Sym #1 "Winter Dreams"
Sibelius -Sym #4
Vaughan Williams - Sym #7 " Antarctica"
Fucik - "Winter Storms" - Concert-waltz

What are some of your favorites??


----------



## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

You mentioned Sibelius. I have always thought of winter when listening to Tapiola! Also, here is something cold and icy!


----------



## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

The sleigh bells in the first movement of Mahler 4 always reminds me of a sleigh ride through the winter snow.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Here you go (at least the outer sections of this whole scene are blizzardy):


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I wouldn't call this piece particularly threatening, but I guess it has its moments (lol). It has a lot of joy relating to winter, and maybe only the 1st mvmt has any frightening element:


----------



## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)




----------



## Retrograde Inversion (Nov 27, 2016)

One work I associate with storms, although more of the thunder variety than those specific to winter, is Bruckner's 9th. I was listening to it once in such a storm, when, just at the climax of one of Bruckner's huge perorations in the first movement, there was an enormous clap of thunder. Ever since then, whenever a thunderstorm comes along, I like to listen to that work and try to repeat that awesome moment.


----------



## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

The 2nd movement of Brahms' 4th symphony conjures up images of the Alps and inclement weather.


----------



## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

A couple recent works that have stuck in my mind--George Benjamin's "A Mind of Winter" and Tristan Murail's "Winter Fragments."

Less like a snowstorm than its aftermath, though.


----------



## sloth (Jul 12, 2013)

just after the storm:


----------



## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Bernard Herrmann's "Sleigh Ride" from his score for The Devil and Daniel Webster fits the bill. Plus the movie is set in New England.






Herrmann's Symphony's first movement also has a coldness about it.


----------



## Sol Invictus (Sep 17, 2016)

Chopin's Winter Wind etude.


----------



## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Heck148 said:


> Here in SE New England we're gearing up for the season's first blizzard - should get 15-20 " of snow, high winds, etc....
> Time to break out the "winter storm music" - some of my faves:
> 
> Tchaikovsky - Sym #1 "Winter Dreams"
> ...


I'm also in SE New England but only expecting around 9" where I am.

More wintery Herrmann. His song cycle "The Fantasticks".


----------



## TxllxT (Mar 2, 2011)

Very chilly indeed! I guess this excerpt comes from Frans Brüggen


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

Kjetil Heggelund said:


> You mentioned Sibelius. I have always thought of winter when listening to Tapiola!


Oh, yes, Tapiola - excellent choice...actually, most any Sibelius will do for wintry weather...

Hanson - Sym #1 "Nordic" is certainly "wintry". [Hanson's idol was Sibelius]

Prokofieff "Troika" [Sleigh Ride] from Lt. Kije is a logical choice, also....not as dark as V-Wms or Sibelius...


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

"Trepak" from Mussorgsky's _Song and Dances of Death_. An old drunk is seduced by and dies in a snowstorm.

Shostakovich's orchestrated version:






Original piano version:


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I love coastal srorms! Up here in Vermont they're saying maybe three inches (but I paid my dues in Greater Boston for years). I think I'd just get a DVD of "Dr. Zhivago." 

The again, after a while you may just want to go in the other direction and get "Lawrence of Arabia."


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

MarkW said:


> I love coastal srorms! Up here in Vermont they're saying maybe three inches (but I paid my dues in Greater Boston for years). I think I'd just get a DVD of "Dr. Zhivago."


Looks like we'll end up with c 12-13""...
I'll probably give Dr Zhivago a spin tomorrow, after I get dug out...shouldn't be too bad, light fluffy stuff.
I spent years in western NY - Rochester, Syracuse area...snows huge, all the time.


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Vivaldi The four seasons - Winter - Julia Fischer


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Adirondacks. Living in the shadow of the big mountains none of the snow has gotten through this year. Have to ascend another thousand feet before one needs snow shoes. Sigh.


----------



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

San Diego - If I want snow, I drive for about 90minutes into the mountains, get my fill of it, then drive home and thaw out. Having said that, it did once snow by the ocean. I remember it quite well because I was taking a physical chemistry final exam and they paused it saying "Go outside and look, it is probably the only time you will ever see snow here!" That was a few decades ago and, so far, they were right.


----------



## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I suppose it's a bit obvious, but the Storm interlude from Britten's _Peter Grimes_ captures the feel of being by the sea when there's a real hooley blowing.


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

EdwardBast said:


> Adirondacks. Living in the shadow of the big mountains none of the snow has gotten through this year. Have to ascend another thousand feet before one needs snow shoes. Sigh.


Whereabouts in the Adirondacks?? I spent years climbing hiking in the area...did a lot of winter climbing/hiking as well...man-o-man - that is winter up there!!


----------



## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Heck148 said:


> Whereabouts in the Adirondacks?? I spent years climbing hiking in the area...did a lot of winter climbing/hiking as well...man-o-man - that is winter up there!!


Seven miles from Whiteface and within a half hour of major trailheads. If I walk for fifteen minutes out my back door I can see Dix, Marcy, Gothics, Cascade, and many others from the south ledges of my local mountain.


----------



## Guest (Jan 8, 2017)

Pugg said:


> Vivaldi The four seasons - Winter - Julia Fischer


Julia Fischer is a musical goddess. I guess anyone that could play the Saint Saens Violin concerto No 3 AND the Grieg Piano Concerto in one concert would achieve god/goddess status for me, though.


----------



## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

carol235 said:


> Julia Fischer is a musical goddess. I guess anyone that could play the Saint Saens Violin concerto No 3 AND the Grieg Piano Concerto in one concert would achieve god/goddess status for me, though.


I heard her last June with ChicagoSO - Beethoven VC - very fine....


----------



## Vox Gabrieli (Jan 9, 2017)

While this doesn't exactly have "winter" in it's title, the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra does a really good job at interpreting the classic opera. The music itself is very light, and is best suited while watching the snow fall outside your home while your body defrosts in front of the fire with a recently warmed kettle of tea.

Nice visual, isn't it?


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I didn't notice the obvious Vaughan Williams Sinfonia Antartica mentioned yet. Sorry if I just missed it somehow.


----------



## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

'Cantus arcticus' - rautavaara
Noel from the vingt regards by messiaen


----------



## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

I love the personal picks above (i.e., not necessarily winter related, but just what people think / hear during the cold terms).

So, as odd as it is, I often think of *Ives* _Concord Sonata_, especially _the Alcotts _when the snow comes, because it did one time when I was super-hooked on the man's music.






And then, equally (same reason), *Elgar's* _Elegy_. It is soft, calming. All passion. It makes you stare and think and, for maybe some, feel pain and cry or think more. Let it just play with the patting on the windowsill and silence when outside, because of all that snow falling, and not targeting or shooting or pelleting or aiming -- the snow is just falling.


----------



## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

what about mvt 1 of Mozart k466?

they used it in amadeus with deserted vienna streets windswept with snow - worked quite well I thought


----------



## pokeefe0001 (Jan 15, 2017)

Retrograde Inversion said:


> One work I associate with storms, although more of the thunder variety than those specific to winter, is Bruckner's 9th.


Interesting. The first movement and 3rd movement have always felt frigid to me. Not storm-like, but bleak. For me the climaxes add power but not warmth. So yes, perhaps a winter storm.


----------



## GodotsArrived (Jan 12, 2017)

I think I have read every post in this thread and have yet to see the most obvious reference of all, Wintersturme itself!


----------



## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

GodotsArrived said:


> I think I have read every post in this thread and have yet to see the most obvious reference of all, Wintersturme itself!


Very good choice.


----------



## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Another obvious (at least for me) choice would be Hovhaness' Storn on Mount Wildcat (originally titled Boreas and Mt. Wildcat)


----------



## chalkpie (Oct 5, 2011)

The very beginning of Sibelius 6 reminds me of a sunny, snowy scene directly AFTER a huge snow storm. Its the next morning after the storm when the trees are full of snow still, the roads are not yet totally clear, and the snow is just starting to melt a tiny bit. At least in my mind!


----------



## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

*Chopin's "Winter Wind" Etude*


----------



## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

Sir Arnold Bax: Winter Legends
Boris Tchaikovsky: The Wind of Siberia
Yevgeny Svetlanov: Siberian Fantasy
Josef Suk: A Winter's Tale
Jules Massenet: Werther (Christmas Eve interlude between acts III & IV)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Tsarina Slippers (Act I, as Chub comes back out of the storm)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Christmas Eve (Act I, while the storm rages, Solokha rides up to the sky and steals the moon, while the Deacon and Oksana's father, Chub, are unable to find their way).


----------



## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Personal association only; but I picture in the second movement of Kalinnikov's first symphony snow falling deep in the forest in the moonlight.


----------



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I don't think it is intended but Tevot by Thomas Ades is a work that makes me think of wild weather - rather as much Sibelius does - and is certainly elemental.


----------



## Mal (Jan 1, 2016)

Something from Haydn's Sturm und Drang period? No. 49 II & IV maybe (but don't skip the beautiful "calm before storm" first movement, and the "skatng dance" smoothness of III):






Haydn has many fast movements that conjour up images, for me, of travelling quickly through an invigorating snow storm in a fast mail coach down a good beaten track at night. So elemental, but we have it just about under control, and are having a good time, Romanticism and Enlightenment meet in perfect harmony.

Anyway spring is here, at last, in the UK, enough of winter storms.


----------



## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

chalkpie said:


> The very beginning of Sibelius 6 reminds me of a sunny, snowy scene directly AFTER a huge snow storm. Its the next morning after the storm when the trees are full of snow still, the roads are not yet totally clear, and the snow is just starting to melt a tiny bit. At least in my mind!


Interesting association. Sibelius is supposed to have said of this symphony that "It puts me in mind of the smell of the first snow of winter".
That must be a loose translation, as Sibelius spoke little English. Swedish or German, probably.


----------

