Tangos, like ragtimes and waltzes, are an integral part of Elena Kats-Chernin's music, always in a new and varied form. In it, the composer allusively combines her present time with the classical tradition and high art with light music.

Slicked Back Tango was originally composed in 1995 for piano four hands and has since been written for numerous other instrumentations. The music "harks back to the time of silent movies. I was thinking of the 1920s and film star Rudolph Valentino. The title...