When you are in a sombre mood…

[Peter1953]

.... this music can really make you feel happy again.

Classical music, not seldom described as serious music, can be neutral, or can make you feel gloomy and sad. But there is also a lot of music that can make you feel good, especially when you are in a sombre mood.

I'm wondering what your 'cheer-me-up' music is. A song, an aria, a symphony, some piano or chamber music, a certain movement, whatever.

My examples are:
Raff, Suite for Piano and Orchestra op. 200, Gavotte und Musette
Gänsbacher, Symphony in D major, especially the Allegro con spirito in the first movement.

Impossible to stay in a depressed mood.

[Lionel Harrsion]

What  good question to ask, causing us turn to cheerful things in difficult times!  My choices would be Sullivan's Overture 'Di Ballo' and Coleridge-Taylor's The Bamboula - Rhapsodic Dance op 75.

[alberto]

If absolute freedom is allowed, Josè Pablo Moncayo: Huapango.
In XIX century: Chabrier Féte Polonaise from Le Roi Malgré Lui

[Alan Howe]

Many things lift my mood - but especially the tenor voice, which for me is probably the ultimate thrill. So Rolando Villazon singing Tosti's "L'alba sepàra dalla luce l'ombra" would be a good example.
But if I really need cheering up I'll go to Youtube and watch Big Daddy defeat Giant Haystacks or Big John Quinn (don't ask!)

[eschiss1]

Quite a few pieces. Oddly, the first thing coming to mind at the moment though I haven't heard the sonata in awhile, are Medtner's 2nd violin sonata and piano quintet (from the Russian Disc  CD that coupled the two.)  The big finale tunes especially, but their overall moods and ranges of moods (and of course the how of it - etc.!)
Eric

[febnyc]

Almost anything (especially the symphonies) by Haydn!

[kolaboy]

Bolcom's piano rags usually work for me. And there's an air by Arne - "Sweetest bard That Ever Sung" - that also does the trick.

[albion]

Being of a naturally rather saturnine disposition (especially for the first two hours or so in the morning), listening to virtually anything will put me in a better mood - especially if it's a much-anticipated new release that has just dropped through the letterbox. 

[mbhaub]

My sure fire choice: 'Appy Hampstead (aka Bank Holiday) by Albert Ketelby. Followed by almost anything of Glazunov. And those wonderful suites by Massenet are sure to lighten your day.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Any piano concerto by Herz. The last movt of the PC by Kullak. Quite a lot of Gottschalk.

[jerfilm]

The Allegro Assai finale of Mozart's Piano Concerto #15 in Bb.  Also the 4th movement of Moszkowski's Piano Concerto in E.  For starters.....

Jerry

[vandermolen]

Rachmaninov Symphony No 2.

[JimL]

The Allegro Assai finale of Mozart's Piano Concerto #15 in Bb.  Also the 4th movement of Moszkowski's Piano Concerto in E.  For starters.....

Jerry

The finale of Mozart's 15th PC is simply Allegro, not Allegro assai.  But if you're thinking of the finale of his Concerto #19 in F, that is an Allegro assai, and my favorite Mozart finale.

[giles.enders]

If I'm in a sombre mood, I don't want to be cheered up, I want something to relax to, so Sibelius 5th Symphony.  I also like Amy Beach's piano concerto.  I have a CD of pieces by Ernest Farrer which I regard as 'comfort music', I don't have to listen too hard as it is like a friend.
I don't like winter Sunday mornings and to get me into shape to face the day I play a Krommer partita, and as there are thirteen of them it gets me through.

[Syrelius]

Berwald's symphony no 4 in E flat major.