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Schlechtes Wetter
Heinrich Heine
Das ist ein schlechtes Wetter,
Es regnet und stürmt und schneit;
Ich sitze am Fenster und
schaue
Hinaus in die Dunkelheit.
Da schimmert ein einsames Lichtchen,
Das wandelt langsam fort;
Ein Mütterchen mit dem Laternchen
Wankt über die Straße dort.
Ich glaube, Mehl und Eier
Und Butter kaufte sie ein;
Sie will einen Kuchen backen
Fürs große Töchterlein.
Die liegt zu Hause im Lehnstuhl,
Und blinzelt schläfrig ins Licht;
Die goldenen Locken
wallen
Über das süße Gesicht.
Dreadful Weather
English Translation © Richard Stokes
This is dreadful weather,
It’s raining and blowing and snowing;
I sit at my window and
stare
Out into the darkness.
One solitary light flickers
out there,
Moving slowly along;
A little old woman with a lantern
Totters across the street.
I fancy it’s flour and eggs
And butter she’s been buying;
She’s going to bake a cake
For her big little daughter.
She lolls at home in the armchair,
Blinking sleepily into the light;
Her golden curls tumble
down
Over her sweet face.
Gentle but sad rain with Brahms:
Regenlied text & translation
Rained on parks and the memory of a children’s game with Debussy:
Night, wind, rain and snow and a (surprisingly) happy ending with Richard Strauss:
Schlechtes Wetter: text & translation (again!)
Vivaldi‘s Italian Summer storm (with hailstones):
00:54 Allegro non molto
06:37 Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
08:43 Presto
Beethoven‘s Viennese storm:
(00:18) I. Allegro ma non troppo: Erwachen heiterer Empfindungen bei der Ankunft auf dem Lande /
Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside
(12:43) II. Andante molto mosso: Szene am Bach /
Scene by the brook
(24:42) III. Allegro: Lustiges Zusammensein der Landleute /
Merry gathering of the countryfolk
(30:15) IV. Allegro: Gewitter, Sturm /
Thunderstorm
(34:16) V. Allegretto: Hirtengesang. Frohe und dankbare Gefühle nach dem Sturm /
Shepherd’s song. Glad and grateful feelings after the storm
Rossini‘s Swiss storm:
Descending an Alp and the orchestral storm to end all orchestral storms with Richard Strauss:
You can listed to and watch a performance of the complete work here.
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The Art of Listening 
Chris
My first reaction to your comments about “rain” was not to recollect Britten’s ” Still falls the rain” but to his “Noye’s Fludde” where hung cups, when tapped by children, produced the sound of loud raindrops. The sound they made a few feet from me 50 years ago in St.Paul’s Llanelli has never left me.
Graham
British rain music? I thought of ‘Raining in my heart’, very popular in my youth, but it turns out that it was written by an American couple. Perhaps rain is just too familiar in these islands to inspire our composers. Strange all the same when you think how often it has inspired visual artists.