'While composing Joy in a Minor Key I attempted to achieve a fleeting, light, poetic, almost never "touching the ground" quality. The piece is written in my favourite form of rondo waltz with a coda,' says Elena Kats-Chernin. The composition was commissioned by an Australian patroness for the 50th birthday of her husband, who had recently recovered from serious illness. On first hearing the atmospherically ambivalent sounds, she then felt more reminded of her mother, a great lover of music, to w...