This piece has a broad moderately paced first movement which leads to a sparkling scherzo which in turn gives way to an extremely sparsely textured movement that features the horn and its less frequently used techniques. The whole piece turns on this movement then a couple of crisp arpeggios act as a premature cinematic transition into the big finale the longest and the technically most demanding movement of the piece.

Stormwatch Stormfall by Peter Maxwell Davies was commissioned by the Aventa Ensemble with assistance from the Scottish Arts Council.