SoNA
Symphony of Northwest Arkansas
Jupiter Rising February 16, 2025 Walton Arts Center Paul Haas, conductor
Russian Rag (2011)
Rags,” all of them tinged in various
Elena Kats-Chernin
shades of blue.
b November 4, 1957 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Originally for piano, and now transcribed for a variety of ensembles, Russian Rag is currently
“Ragtimes are such fun to write
Kats-Chernin’s most popular
and they have a somewhat dark
composition. “Russian music often
melancholy,” writes Uzbekistan
has a melancholic quality, and I
native Elena Kats-Chernin. She’s
was brought up on Rachmaninov
absolutely right about that.
and Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and
Consider Scott Joplin’s “Heliotrope
Shostakovich. I rarely write in major
Bouquet” or, closer to our own time,
keys, it seems and Russian Rag is
William Bolcom’s “Graceful Ghost”
no exception; however, it concludes
or William Albright’s “The Dream
optimistically on a major chord.”