What are your 'Comfort blanket' works...?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

4:33"

Nothing else needed

Not long enough (unless you ignore the metronome marks).

[Petrushka]

I usually turn to the great Viennese classics as a 'comfort blanket' but it's the Beethoven symphonies above all that really do it for me, All life is there and every mood you can experience is there too.

However, for those times when stress and distress strike harder something more is called for and in such times only Shostakovich will do especially the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th. The Berg Three Orchestral Pieces and Mahler 6 have also been utilised at any number of bleak periods.

Generally speaking (frantically touches wood) things are much more settled for me now than they have been over the past five or six years, big problems at work, death of parents etc and I feel less need for a comfort blanket.

[vinteuil]

Ordinarily I would turn to Bach for sanity, Haydn for humanity, Chopin and Ravel for the sheer joy that music can bring..

... very much my approach too.

If I need an immediate lift, a removal from the trivial wretchednesses that life can throw up - then often it is Scarlatti that I turn to.

I have a CD where Christian Zacharias plays the same Sonata ( K 55 ) twenty times : they are recordings taken from encores of his concerts. I can listen to it all through with unfailing delight.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000005GLW

also available in -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0040UEI3G

[Pulcinella]

Much in common with previous replies here in Casa Pulcinella.
Depending on the nature of what I'm seeking relief from:
1: nothing
2: something reassuring, such as the Goldbergs, Art of fugue
3: something more cathartic: RVW Symphony 5, Tippett Concerto for double string orchestra (especially the middle movement)
Then, if I've cheered up: the last movement of the Tippett!

[AjAjAjH]

Mahler 9 (To calm me down)
Brahms 2 (To cheer me up)
Elgar 'Apostles' Ascension Section. (For all things spiritual)

[EdgeleyRob]

Solace after a stressful day - Howells Requiem
Fending off depression - RVW Lark Ascending
When it seems things can't get any worse - DSCH 4th Symphony
General comfort blanket when I'm just fed up - Mozart String Quartet K387

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Elgar 'Apostles' Ascension Section. (For all things spiritual)

[Serial_Apologist]

Not long enough (unless you ignore the metronome marks).

It is said that in advanced meditation, Samadhi (the highest state of consciousness) can be attained in a few seconds.

Echoing something Elliott Carter once said in a radio interview, I might once have been surprised that so many here are citing works from past eras with which to identify in times of stress, sadness and trouble. Nowadays I find it much more reassuring to find identification with human souls from whatever stage of history through the various arts: it forges a feeling of oneness with all of humankind. Maybe a sign of coming old age.

[richardfinegold]

I've alluded to the fact that my work situation has been pretty unbearable recently due to a 'clique' of what I must, in the spirit of the season, call 'collegues' going out of their way to be as obnoxious as possible. More and more, I found that rather than sit in the staff room, I would sit in the car and put a cd on. Although I tried various works, it was always Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto that I would end up playing. It had the advantage that the first movement lasts about 18 minutes which gave me enough time to make tea and purchase whatever gourmet offerings were available from the canteen before settling down behind the wheel with one of the MANY recordings I've acquired over my 30 years of cd collecting! I found that it always turned my low mood into something a bit more positive.

I think my affection comes from the fact that it was one of the first pieces I ever wanted to play and although, I was never likely to perform it with an orchestra, I used to find that it was a good barometer of my progress since I'd dig it out every summer and would find I could manage a bit more than the previous year.

Anyway, I suppose my question is what works do you turn to in moments of stress?

Sorry to hear about the troubles, PG. Can you change jobs? Nurses are greatly in demand over here.
I have found that I am overwhelmed with dread and anxiety, there isn't any music that comforts. Fortunately this doesn't occur often. Most of the time it is a mixture of fatigue and frustration. Mahler 5, Mozart PC, and Chopin Preludes or Etudes
Fit the bill.

[makropulos]

Like several other posters, I often find silence works pretty well. For music: Bach's Musical Offering, Brahms's string sextets and string quintets, Mozart's "Haydn" quartets, Beethoven's Op. 127 and 135, Ravel's Introduction and Allegro and so on. I like to get lost in the more intimate world of chamber music when things get stressed, and don't really want to deal with words or large orchestras until I'm feeling more robust.

[Ferretfancy]

Off the top of my head I'd go for Mozart 488, Ravel's String Quartet, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms. I no longer try very hard to absorb the more obscure stuff in my collection, in fact I've been thinning out some more challenging material simply because I know in my heart of hearts that I no longer want to make the effort.

Perhaps having turned 80 I can let myself just enjoy what I love best and leave difficulties for others, but funnily enough I often enjoy new music live at concerts, I'm just more conservative listening at home.

[gradus]

When the going gets tough I often switch off from music knowing that eventually it will return and when it arrives the experience is intense. Often an 'ear worm' will get me back listening, most recently the beginning of the second movt of the final Beethoven piano sonata which is so movingly beautiful that it breaks through; picking (and I mean picking) through it and other pieces on the piano helps too.

[Howdenite]

Shostakovich Preludes & Fugues (Melnikov recording). Always.....

[Serial_Apologist]

Off the top of my head I'd go for Mozart 488, Ravel's String Quartet, Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms. I no longer try very hard to absorb the more obscure stuff in my collection, in fact I've been thinning out some more challenging material simply because I know in my heart of hearts that I no longer want to make the effort.

Perhaps having turned 80 I can let myself just enjoy what I love best and leave difficulties for others, but funnily enough I often enjoy new music live at concerts, I'm just more conservative listening at home.

If this holds true for most people aged 80, it gives me just 10 years to come to terms with Michael Finnissy's music, then.

[Daniel]

Silence generally for me, but music is certainly a hand across the abyss at times. Nothing specific, it's unpredictable, I certainly recognise the palliative power of Shostakovich mentioned by others, but it can be any music I feel close to.

Edit: A memory of a recent experience of this just popped into my head - the opening of Shostakovich 10, the fragments of melody being particularly affecting against such a scoured landscape, seemed the essence of compassion and understanding at the time.