It is with great joy that we announce the unveiling of the Unsung Heroes II Recital, featuring works by lesser-known composers. We had a wonderful turnout!

I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to all the participants, and especially our very own gerg, whose tireless efforts behind the scenes make these events possible. The hosting site looks beautiful. Thank you, Greg!

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, may we present Unsung Heroes II:

http://www.ecital.net/listen.php

and to download,

http://www.ecital.net/download.php

Enjoy!

Heidi

The site seems to go up and down, up and down. It'd be really nice if they could have picked some day OTHER THAN the day of our e-cital for their MySQL upgrade

It should be up again later.

Thank you, Greg and Heidi! I've already started listening and wow, the quality is really high this time around. There's a ton of talent here and it seems to be getting better every time.

Just a fair warning about my Strauss - I recorded all five pieces from the Stimmungsbilder, Op. 9 in one take, so it's about 16 minutes of music.

Awesome! Stickied!

Thank you Kreisler! This is indeed quite a feast of the work of the Unsung...

Plenty of Russian influence this time around.

This is a better link for those who want to download the mp3 files:

http://www.ecital.net/download.php

It's also less confusing than that huge list of previous recital pieces.


Mel

Ooh, thanks for pointing that out, Mel! Yes, you can download all the peices there. I was waiting for Orange Soda King to upload before creating the zip file from which we can burn CDs - or download to our Androids, iPods/pads/phones, etc.

And actually, the one with the streaming player and comments page links is

http://www.ecital.net/present.php

with the dowloadables (as Mel mentioned) at

http://www.ecital.net/download.php

A friendly reminder to leave some comments for the other performers. I can tell that a ton of work went into each piece.

to both performers and organizers!!!

I am so very PROUD of everyone who participated here! So many interesting contributions, off the beaten path, yet quite worthy of interest. Plenty of kind comments.

ChopinAddict, you do not need to be registered to post comments, and I hope you are enjoying the music! Some of it has a distinctly Chopinesque feel.

I always like Andy's playing, and David (Rachfan) always sounds like a pro - from decades of diligent work and study under some of the most brilliant teachers. kck's young son reeled off a fine performance of the Tarantella.

wr did not disappoint (I'm still listening to his work), and KuanPiano really impressed me with the Kapustin.

OrangeSodaKing (Alkan King? ) gave a most expressive rendition of the Alkan Nocturne.

Dannylux, a constant fixture and one who shares a passion for more obscure composers, performed his works like a pro - as always.

beet31424 gave us a couple of delightful contributions.

Jeffrey, as last year, offered up a gourmet feast of a recording with a delightful suite.

justarobert played very well - "Triana" is playing through my speakers as I write this.

I was unfamiliar with the work of Fragoso until I heard David Baptista's recording; I took an instant liking the Berceuse.

SamOnThePiano gives us "Rustles of Spring", an epic, rumbling piece.

And Inlanding, amazingly, was able to contribute a wonderfully morose jazz number, "Complaint".

Andy Platt - a tasteful tribute to Gershwin.

I'm still listening to SlatterFan's, but also very high marks.

Everything recorded here sounds technically difficult and implies enormous preparatory effort.

There is SO MUCH music out there, and but for Unsung chances are we'd never hear of many of these composers sans serious academic study which for most of us is not a viable option.

I think we've all done pianism a big favor here!

Oh no! I thought I posted in this comment in this thread already...

I tried uploading the Alkan Canon, Barcarolle, and Prelude also (I'm afraid piano/viola will also have to wait), but whenever I uploaded them, they never showed up. And thanks for your kind words about the Nocturne.

Sorry the site has been so stroppy today.

Last night, I needed to convert someone's audio file from m4a to mp3. Easy, right? WRONG!

This led to the discovery that the tool I normally use to modify the database by hand is now too new for the database version they use.

That, in turn, led to a one-hour tech support call.

That, in turn, led to a trouble ticket.

And that, in turn, may be what's causing these issues - if they are trying to fix/upgrade their database management system while we're uploading, downloading, posting comments.

Just a case of really, really bad timing on their part.

Many thanks to Heidi and gerg for making this happen. And also to everyone else who participated. It's going to be a musical feast for me over the next few days...

I think I will go for the idea of burning a CD from the recital! Perhaps I can even convince some of my design-minded brothers to design a cover. If I'm successful I'll post it later!

Too bad for the site instability but hang in there!

I've been making my way straight down the list, and I must say, there is so much excellent music here!!! I've had to stop and re-listen to several pieces already, so it's taking a while to get through list!

Thank you, Heidi and Greg, for making this e-cital happen! Greg, you are right... it IS a service! I hope many people find out about this.

--Andy

We've just started listening over here, but the previews I've opened up sound amazing! Thanks so much for organizing this - what a treat!

I first got a chance to listen yesterday, and posted a comment but nothing happened. Tried again this morning and the same. What am I doing wrong? I went to the page you linked, clicked on the little number at the right of the piece, wrote my comment and hit "post", but my post doesn't appear.

I had the same problem. That's why I asked gerg if I had to register or something. Then I posted a general comment in this thread because my comments just didn't appear. Do only Aussies have this problem? I remember I had also answered a question which seemed to be like when you have to answer a random question to prevent spam.

I wonder did I get the random question wrong? It was mathematical, after all.

Mine was really easy! I still remember it. How much is one plus zero?

Maybe you answered creatively with 10?
I want to apologize for not being able to submit my recordings, i had stressful times. And i haven't listened to the e-cital yet either, but i'll definitely do that and make a round of comments!

No. Maybe that's what THEY wanted though?

I forgot all about this! I look forward to making my way through everybody's contributions!

Actually, I had the same question as CA, and because the question was framed in words, I answered in words. Wondered at the time whether I was supposed to write the number...
I don't think I have time now to try for a third time, especially as my internet connection is dropping out a lot today. Bother.

currawong,

I think you were supposed to write in the number; that's what the "numerical" was trying to say in the question ("What is one plus zero? (numerical)").

-J

I don't have the "numerical" hint...

That "numerical" hint doesn't appear on the comment page for me; it appears on the upload page. But yes, you type in "1", not "one".

Hi guys,

Lest you think Greg was being silly with the simple math question, I wanted to explain that the purpose of the question "what is one plus zero?" is to prevent spammers from targeting the site. Seems to have worked, but I'm sorry if it caused any problems in posting comments! I'll make Greg aware of it.

I haven't posted any comments yet because I want a chance to listen to everything first, but I must say that what I've heard so far is very impressive! I'm in the path of Hurricane Irene, so I'm hoping to have power this weekend. Bravo to all the performers, and thanks for making this a great event!

Heidi

Hi All,

To all of you on the East Coast, our thoughts and prayers are with you. An earthquake - for many of you, your first, and now the first hurricane since the 60s.

Gate dot com has been performing some maintenance which has affected us. I couldn't get to our site most of yesterday, but we're back.

The math question is phrased with words to fool spambots that may be intelligent enough to parse "1 + 0" and fill in the field. They will eventually be intelligent enough to detect words as well, at which time we will address that.

Okay all, I made it a little clearer: "What is one plus zero (numerical, 1)?"

Thanks so much everyone!

Another site I post on changed it to "Just type 1:"

Thanks gerg - I didn't have the "numerical" hint, but I did realise the purpose of the question. It would be nice to think I was cleverer than a spambot, but sadly ...
Unfortunately my window of free time has gone so I'll be back in a few days to comment. (Loved wr's Koechlin!)

Glad you liked it! And everyone else who did, too - there have been some very nice and perceptive comments, which are much appreciated.

Not relevant to the discussion, but since it was brought up, the worst hurricane along the east coast was Hurricane Agnes in 1972. 130 people were killed ncluding 19 in Maryland. The name Agnes was retired, never to be used for a hurricane again. See

Hurricane Agnes

That was something to remember!

It appears that Irene will cause little damage, hopefully no deaths. Perhaps some much needed rain.

First site says sorry, error

Second site says malware has been found.

???

I lived through and experienced both Hurricanes Allen and Alicia. Allen was a deadly storm which filled the entire Gulf of Mexico and killed 290. We were spared a direct hit.

Alisha, though, was a different story, causing (IIRC) $2b of damage to Houston and Galveston. I remember huddling with the family in Mom and Dad's closet in the middle of the night with flashlights. You have no control. A strong wind or rogue tornado can rip your roof off at any moment.

At present, it appears Irene is packing deadly 33-MPH winds...

Lilylady:

I loved your Germany pictures!!! My wife and I spent over an hour going through them last night. The tours, the composers, the history... Thank you so much for that!


For e-cital: Ignore the malware warning. We banned spammers' IPs and e-cital.net is as a result mis-reported as a "blackhole." Unless you're planning to spam pornography, you're in no danger.

Also, Heidi put listen.php as the streaming site.

The correct link is

http://www.ecital.net/present.php

Hope you enjoy these outstanding recordings!

Stay safe.

*******

As a follow-up, here is Google's malware detection's assessment of ecital.net:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecital.net

Completely safe.

My goodness! I have every reason to love this site!

Join the fun! We'll be taking submissions for Liszt very soon!

Thanks! I would actually love to join in the fun. What all should I know about this and when it's taking place?

Check HERE for more information about the Liszt e-cital. I'm keeping a list here of participants with a final submission date of October 22 (Liszt's 200th birthday)

Is there going to be an Unsung Heroes III this year?

Hi wr, and greetings to all!

Great minds must think alike, wr, because I was just wondering the same thing. Even though I don't have time to participate on PW as much as I would like, Unsung Heroes is near and dear to my heart. I would be glad to organize it.

Our tech guru, gerg, just took a new job and is very busy... so I will contact him and ask if he has the time to help us out. If so, let's do it!

If not, I have a Plan B, so start browsing obscure scores

Excellent!!