Eleven members of this forum have been working for about a year to bring you the second installment of our Mazurka Marathon. It debuted Sunday March 1st and there is yet to be one comment made. Really! Come on and give your fellow performers some support why don't you? The mazurkas are here and each one of them is a gem.

http://www.chopinforever.org/mazurkathon2009

Thanks for the link, the site is really cool.

I'm listening to them now and really enjoying them. Of course, being the musical ignoramus I am, I had to go Google "what is a muzurka?" first.

No offense to the Chopin fans! I just haven't advanced enough to play him. My teacher, however, said very early on that, as soon as I'm ready, she'll have me playing Chopin. He's her favorite composer ... which seems to be the case for many a pianist. I'm sure I'll understand more why that is so when I get to work on some of his pieces.

Back to the muzurkas: They're really delightful. I might have to see if I can dig up a video of people dancing the muzurka as I'm trying to visualize it but keep imagining Virginia reels and such. I think maybe that's not so correct ...

What's the history of how this muzurka fest, anyway? I've been away and missed the planning discussions, assuming there were any. Who's the genius I should be thanking?

Yes, thanks for alerting us to the Mazurkathon, Frycek. I can think of a couple of factors why this event slipped entirely below my (and others') radar:

(1) It coincided with the transition to the new forum software, and many of us were having trouble simply navigating the site, let alone reading all the threads carefully.

(2) The title of the thread didn't alert us to the fact that the mazurkathon was going on in it. It may be embarrassing to admit this, but I tend not to click on classically-oriented threads because that's not where my expertise and interest lies. So I thought the thread just was full of people saying 'happy birthday' to Chopin and I didn't read it.

So I hope you will understand that it was not intentional neglect on my (and presumably others') part but just obliviousness... which isn't much of a defense, I'll admit.

Hi Frycek,

My excuse (which is probably alot worse than Monica's ) is that I still haven't made time to listen to the 13th Recital yet. So I really need to do that first, then it will be onto the Marzukas!

Euan.

Oh geeze...

how horrible of us! Slap us silly with a wet fish (*ewww*)

Will start listening RIGHT NOW!

I love to hear pianists sharing their playing.

How about if you share this with the other sections of the forums? and WTF? I know that I don't always get over to the beginners forum section. What brought me here today was that it was posting over on the left in the new postings box.

I don't know about you'll, but I am still having a hard time navigating around the new forum looks...

I have enjoyed listening to you pianists share your Mazurka's over this past hour. Several that I had not known before.

BRAVO!

I'll be looking forward to the next group in the spring.

;-)

Testing the editing function

ooh it's so easy to listen to them with that webplayer, and good fun too!

Thanks for the poke.

Succsessful marketing steps:

1.) Create awareness
2.) Create interest
3.) Create desire
4.) Create action

None of us should be "ashamed" of ourselves if the event was not promoted properly. It is not our responsibility to track these things.

That said, all of us here will now probably take a listen to the marathon since we are now *aware* of it. Since there are many Chopin fans here, many of us will naturally be *interested* in the marathon. In fact, many of us may *desire* to listen to it when we get home and probably *will*..(i.e "action").

Congratulations to all the performers in the marathon. Your efforts and performances have NOT gone unnoticed and each performance was fantastic.

Does this Mazurka Marathon get posted (for keeps) in the performance forum section of PW?

If not yet, maybe it should be!

And maybe it could have a nice new title?

the 68 No 2 by Mistaya was particularly great

I agree with SH, but I would go even further - even if it had been promoted properly there is absolutely no valid reason for one to feel ashamed for not listening - no matter how worthy the project.

Pehaps an expression of mild disappointment, with some words of encouragement would have been highly preferable to an unjustifiable "scolding" suggesting a lack of artistic appreciation and a flagrant derelection of duty.

Regards, JF

Thank you Bunneh! A little encouragement goes a long way.

I thought all of the performances were wonderful. Such a long wait for the next installment...

regards

I apologize if I came on so strongly as to be offensive. In my own Southern vernacular what I wrote was a mild, slightly humorous encouragement to participate. I must remember a tone of voice can't be heard on the net.

Well, my excuse is that I've been away for the past 10 days.

I was somewhat aware that there was a Mazurka marathon planned, but was not aware that it had actually occurred until I found this thread today. I'm still not sure what a mazurka is, but I found each of them delightful and I applaud all the participants.

I'm only ashamed of what I submitted in such fabulous company .

I have noticed, though, that in the regular recitals, most of the comments came from other participants. I don't know why we Marzurkers didn't do that too, but we didn't (myself included).

At any rate, thank you all for a very lovely slice of Chopin. I really enjoyed listening to the recital.

And a very special thanks to Mary Rose and Frycek for everything you did to make it come true.

I don't believe that Frycek should apologize for her post. If I did take part in the marathon, I know it would not only break my heart a bit, but I would also be a little disillusioned and disappointed in the people who frequent this forum if not a single comment was posted.

I do believe that it would be a good idea if the participants could have a critique thread as the regular recitals do. At least then we could count on some feedback.

I do applaud each and every one of you who played. I am envious of your talents and discipline but have the highest regard and appreciation for you all.

Kathleen

Thanks for putting on this mazurka marathon. I have been enjoying it. Some I had not ever heard before. It should have a sticky post for easy finding - I mean with a title telling it is a mazurka marathon. Now I feel like dancing...