Whipping up a storm

The sonic extremes of storms, whether physical or cosmic, have attracted composers through the centuries –and with good reason, says Tom Service

- Tom Service

Storm’s coming. Composers have been storm-chasers for centuries, from Baroque operas to hyper Romantic tone poems, from modernist orchestral tempests to storms in a symphonic concert hall. Composers from Vivaldi to Xenakis are fascinated with putting the most dangerous – and dangerously sound-saturated – weather events that we face as human beings on stage, pushing their musical imaginations to try to transcend the drama of a real-world thunderstorm.