Asiya Korepanova in Personal Piano Project
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Midnight Pieces – Episode #5
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“Midnight Pieces’ is a project presenting 53 beautiful works from 53 composers (originally meant as one piece for each week of the year, plus one) – music, that is just perfect for night-time listening.
The pieces follow a hidden pattern: within each consecutive 4 works one is famous, one is by a Russian composer, one is obscure work and one is a transcription by yours truly.
These categories mix and match sometimes, but overall there are iconic and less-known pieces by well-known composers, quite a bit of breathtaking pieces by obscure composers and several world premieres of my transcriptions of rare and famous works of different authors.
I felt a need to fight the general fascination of the general audience with piano pieces that are primarily virtuosic encores (Volodos Turkish March etc), and wanted to create a project that fulfills the desire for aesthetic pleasure, for beauty of the music itself. It doesn’t mean there is no virtuosity there – there is plenty, but not as the main point at all.”
Asiya Korepanova.
Asiya Korepanova and Pianists Corner offer you a weekly rendezvous. Each rendezvous will contain 4 pieces.
Episode #5
The composers : 
“Padre Antonio Soler, the “Spanish Scarlatti”, is somewhat rebellious by nature, even though we do not hear it right away. In his Sonata in C minor, he uses the old form of a sonata, where each half repeats. Scarlatti mostly wrote his sonatas in the same form; as well as many Bach’s works, including those which are not sonatas, still were written structurally the same. I love how this small piece displays so many characters – and they also can be altered in repeats! There are places for lyrical and heroic moments, mournful and cheerful episodes, embellishments and virtuosity, and yet it all starts and ends on a quiet note.” A.K.
Antonio Soler : Sonata R. 18 in C minor
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“I always loved the dreamy and exquisitely gentle Slumber Song by Robert Schumann – from his rarely played collection of Album Leaves, Op.124. The entire collection itself is so whimsical, but the opening four notes of this piece’s melody are surprisingly the same as one of the main motives of the second movement of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, which also appears quietly and as if through a dream. I like to imagine these two works are somehow related!” A.K.
Robert Schumann : Albumblätter Opus 124 (1854) – 16. Schlummerlied
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“I have admired this piercing Intermezzo by Johannes Brahms since early childhood – each note felt like a drop of water in the silence of time, and yet all of the notes were a part of an enormous flow…Enormous in its quietness and sense of a long story captured within a short narrative. One of the very last four pieces for piano that Brahms ever wrote, this Intermezzo makes me think of it as a metaphor of his life. I first performed the entire Op.119 when I was 12 years old, and the inner connection with it never leaves me.” A.K.
Johannes Brahms : Klavierstücke Opus 119 (1893) – 1. Intermezzo in B minor – Adagio
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“Rose Adagio from the ballet Sleeping beauty is one of the most uplifting, powerfully beautiful, enlightening, regal and inspiring moments in the ballet literature…how annoyed I was one day to find that it wasn’t included in the famous Sleeping Beauty suite transcription for piano by Mikhail Pletnev! And how happy I am that this circumstance allowed me to have my own version, which I always miraculously find energy to play at the end of my solo and orchestral performances – just because it is such gorgeous music, and also because it is one of my favorite keys. This recording was made in the week that will forever be marked for me as a very sad and difficult moment of passing of my beloved grandfather, Anatoly Korepanov. He was a genius doctor and scientist, who saved thousands of lives, and who has made an insane progress throughout his own life, from a hungry boy of an obscure little village to someone whose knowledge and mastery became legendary. My transcription of Rose Adagio is dedicated to him and the memory of him, full of his bursting energy, joy of life and ability to achieve something that previously seemed impossible.” A.K.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky / Asiya Korepanova : Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty Ballet
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