Classical Music For Coin Lovers

Coinosaurus · January 22, 2011 1:44PM

Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is really depressing me. It's almost as boring as Barber coinage.

Can anyone recommend anything better?

dogwood · January 22, 2011 1:50PM

OUCH!!!
dis my Barbers.
I'm a fan of Bartok.

RWB · January 22, 2011 1:52PM

Knoxville: Summer of 1915, or Prokoviev 2nd Symphony, Ives' 4th Symphony or Country Band March....there's always Respighi or Rachmaninov Symphony #1.....Or maybe just Pennies from Heaven....? Bartok's Miraculious Mandarin

Coinosaurus · January 22, 2011 2:14PM

I like the later Rachmaninoff stuff. But I think I will borrow a copy of the symphony #1 CD from the local library, that is a good suggestion.

Interestingly, wikipedia notes that symphony no. 1 was actually lost and later reconstructed from individual parts that survived.

Bob Julian is a an expert on Russian coinage.

Raybo · January 22, 2011 3:13PM

Igor Stravinsky's "The firebird" and......
Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor" Polovetsian dances.

centmaster · January 22, 2011 3:22PM

Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony is much better than his first. The Firebird is great but the opening of Petroushka is simply envigorating. Also, don't forget Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe, Suite #2 for a masterpiece of the 20th Century. It will take you anywhere and everywhere you want to go.

Cratylus · January 22, 2011 5:32PM

Seeing as how you don't appreciate coinage that looks Classical (Barber coins have a very Greco-Roman appearance), I must assume you have questionable tastes in general. Therefore, I will suggest some music for you that is equally "un"-Classical, and should be more in line with your questionable taste:

Kanye West

savoyspecial · January 22, 2011 7:41PM

>>Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is really depressing me. It's almost as boring as Barber coinage>>

the trough gets a bit lower......ever catalogued Lodz ghetto currency while listening to Morrissey?

golfer72 · January 22, 2011 8:39PM

Mahler!

lordmarcovan · January 22, 2011 9:14PM

Kind of hard to go wrong with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, especially #3.

blueifalcon · January 22, 2011 10:04PM

I'm looking through $375.00 in cents and Pink Floyd is sooooo relaxing. Specifically...The Delicate Sound of Thunder double album

RichieURich · January 22, 2011 10:30PM

I would suggest Baroque. When I was a collector, I often was baroque.

ChangeInHistory · January 22, 2011 11:10PM

Piano music of the Romantic Era,.......... Debussey, Chopin

But I'm always up for some Rush as well!

shorecoll · January 22, 2011 11:38PM

Steve Martin has a new banjo album out, that should suit your refined tastes.

DCW · January 22, 2011 11:54PM

Shostakovich symphony #5, Sibelius violin concerto, Ralph Vaugn Williams "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis."

MrEureka · January 22, 2011 11:56PM

Since you find Barber music and coins are boring, I'd suggest taking a walk on the Darkside.

rmpsrpms · January 23, 2011 12:09AM

Most of the music suggestions are modern cr**... I'm with lordmarcovan and RichieURich when they suggest baroque, but I'd further suggest Vivaldi. If you absolutely MUST go with something more modern, try some Rossini (but not the operas, oh god no). Sins of my Old Age or any of the string or wind quartets are wonderful to listen to while searching rolls.

ModernDollarNut · January 23, 2011 12:31AM

You guys are all wrong, WRONG! I say.

The original version of Barber's Adagio for Strings was written for string quartet, and in that form it is only boring after the fifth hearing on the same day. Hear it performed by a robust group like The Emerson.

Stravinsky? Must go with Le Sacre du Printemps (I'm a bad enough speller in English. . .), with Lenny or any other forceful conductor, just not Stravinsky himself (he actually made his piece boring: as a Philly Orchestra brat, I watched him rehearse and then perform his masterwork and he looked bored doing it! No animation, head in the score the whole time, beating time like a worn out metronome). There's good reason the first performance caused a riot with the police called in, multiple arrests and many minor injuries. The riot started in mid-performance when over-enthusiastic patrons, and again, this is at the first hearing of the piece, started beating the chairs in front of them with whatever they had at hand, canes, paralols, their fists, with little attention to the people sitting in those seats.

But for the singular composition of the 20th Century, there is no comparison to the Eighth String Quartet of Shostakovich, the Emerson's recording. What an emotional rollar-coaster it is.

Or perhaps Ginestera's contribution to a group of 12 pieces written by 12 different composers in honor of Paul Sacher's Birthday (I think it was for his birthday somewhere around 1960?). The Ginestera is the last of the 12 and the performance I have in mind, forget any other, is Alex Ezerman's graduation recital. Needless to say I have no connection to that performance whatsoever but even so, halfway through its eight minutes I can not remain seated and have to conduct my own personal riot, stomping around and gesticulating like a mad man.

Just another boring classical piece of music. . . Rob, who stoutly believes enjoying the riches of classical music is not unrelated to unjoying the whole spectrum of US classical coins, that is, from the earliest through the Ike era.

abitofthisabitofthat · January 23, 2011 2:23AM

For relaxing, easy listening, you can't go wrong with Grieg in the hands of a pianist who has a feel for it (some day, I will master Wedding Day at Troldhaugen).

If you are really looking for something absorptive, go opera. Spend a day with Boris Godunov. Spend a day with Il Trittico. Spend a month with Wagner's Ring.

ctf_error_coins · January 23, 2011 2:35AM

Classic Led Zeppelin works for me but If I have to go classical I go with Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass

Other classics that go with coins well are, Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Heart, Talking Heads, Pink Floyd, The Cars, etc., I got my own itunes Jukebox running as I type this and My Shuffle just brought up Elton John.

giorgio11 · January 23, 2011 2:45AM

Nonboring classical music:

Beethoven 7th Symphony
Respighi Pine of Rome and Fountains of Rome
Tchaikovsky Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture
Mahler 7th
Horowitz playing Scriabin piano music

Wagner! Try the Ride of the Valkyries with all eight women singing those parts usually played by orchestra
Or Entrance of the Gods Into Valhalla
Birgit Nilsson singing Brunnhilde's Immolation
The beginning of Rheingold, since we're nothing if not coin-related here!
Stravinsky Rite of Spring, Pulcinella
Maria Callas recordings, mostly pre-1955
Richard Strauss: Deborah Voigt singing Ariadne; Natalie Dessay as Zerbinetta
Jussi Bjoerling singing anything!
Orff: Carmina Burana

Oh yeah: Weill's Threepenny Opera ("Where did 'Mack the Knife' come from?)

Buona fortuna!

keets · January 23, 2011 2:48AM

Can anyone recommend anything better?

Debussy.

yellowkid · January 23, 2011 2:53AM

I would rather listen to the likes of Billie Holiday or Mississippi John Hurt, but when the mood strikes a Puccini aria or some Satie works for me.

DrPete · January 23, 2011 3:10AM

The Beatles.

ANACONDA · January 23, 2011 3:16AM

Limp Bizkit; My Way:

My Way

ambro51 · January 23, 2011 3:17AM

Nirvana. Metallica.

lordmarcovan · January 23, 2011 6:30PM

<< <i>Most of the music suggestions are modern cr**... I'm with lordmarcovan and RichieURich when they suggest baroque, but I'd further suggest Vivaldi. If you absolutely MUST go with something more modern, try some Rossini (but not the operas, oh god no). Sins of my Old Age or any of the string or wind quartets are wonderful to listen to while searching rolls. >>

In true Classical music I do indeed prefer the Baroque. Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann. I enjoy the Romantic era greats like Beethoven and Brahms but there's something about the airiness of a nice Baroque allegro that lifts my spirits. Even the slower stuff like Pachelbel's canon is contemplative and serene.

To keep it numismatic, which I often do when listening to early music, it's fun to imagine the coins that Bach or Handel might have carried and spent.

For those who mentioned The Beatles- hey, you're not so wrong, really. I'm firmly convinced that the Beatles will be considered "classical music" in the century to come, and beyond.

And to prove how eclectic I am...yep, I like Metallica too, in small doses.

As far as the "modern crap" goes, though, Tull is tops for me.

melvin289 · January 23, 2011 7:43PM

Try The Traveling Wilbury's Volume 1. Great stuff.

Ron

Manorcourtman · January 23, 2011 10:43PM

ELO and Boston is classical to me

lordmarcovan · January 23, 2011 10:56PM

I like ELO too.

ColonelJessup · January 24, 2011 4:59AM

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture for a few copper weenies and many DarkSide collectors of European coinage.

bidask · January 24, 2011 8:06AM

ZZ top legs when I am looking at a beautiful walker

EagleEye · January 24, 2011 8:57AM

I like to pop on "Sunrise" from "Also sprach Zarathustra" (theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey") by Richard Strauss when opening up my PCGS submissions.

Then pour a glass of merlot and take in the beauty of the toned gems with "An der schönen blauen Donau" (On the Beautiful Blue Danube) by Johann Strauss II in the background.

Edscoin · January 24, 2011 9:06AM

The guitar of Mark Knopler. Classical Modern!

Classical Music For Coin Lovers

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