Ray Bayles growls:

>I am aggressively involved in 20th Century music and love to play the most
>recent, adventurous, complex pieces.  So it is a mystery even to me why I
>turn to the Strauss Waltzes when I need something that turns me around and
>gives me comfort.  At other times, depeending upon what part of my soul
>needs comforting, I turn to the Verdi Requiem or Bachs Goldberg Variations
>performed by an artist that plays them very slowly.  I do see the
>comforting power of the music posted on this thread.

Maybe its like four hours on the rack with a bathroom break.  Yes, aren't
those Strauss Waltzes ineffable? Talk about crossover music.  Almost
everyone loves them.  We who have lived immersed in classical music know
that they are among the inspired works of the repertoire.  Women in love
associate them with romance although they won't know a musical staff from
a shepherd's.  Even a-dolt-lessents can be weaned away from their tuned
garbage can music when "Tales of the Vienna Woods" strikes up.  Drunks have
been known to sob uncontrollably over them on New Year's Eve.  Now that is
what I would call irresistible music.

Andrew Carlan "the Smaltz King"