You know Aram Khachaturian, right? The guy who wrote that frenetic tune that makes you want to spin plates on the tops of sticks? The one that is used to usher in the elephants at the circus?

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll be listening to Leopold Stokowski’s rarely-heard recording of Khachaturian’s Symphony No. 2, sometimes called “The Bell.”

Khachaturian wrote the work in 1943, the height of World War II, while he was holed up at a Composers Union retreat with Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Miaskovsky and Gliere. He said of the piece, “The Second Symphony is a requiem of wrath, a requiem of protest against war and violence.”

The symphony’s nickname alludes to a kind of alarm that opens and closes the work. Overall, the tone is one of resolve in the face of tragedy.

Stokowski’s recording, long unavailable, was originally issued on United Artists Records in the late 1950s. It reappeared briefly on compact disc, on the EMI label, in 1994, and again in 2009, as part of a 10-disc box set of entrancing Stokowski performances.

The master tapes have not weathered the years well, alas, so there are moments of distortion, but the power of the piece transcends any technical limitations. There is certainly nothing wanting in the performance.

To round out the hour, we’ll hear the Russian-born pianist, Nadia Reisenberg, in a selection from her 1947 Carnegie Hall recital, Khachaturian’s most famous piano work, the “Toccata.” Reisenberg studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music under Josef Hoffman.

Join me for these Khachaturian rarities, “Khach as Catch Can,” tonight at 10 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

Here’s the composer, highly-decorated, conducting his “Concerto-Rhapsody,” with Mstislav Rostropovich:

Music for spinning plates, Liberace style:

A rare document of Khachaturian singing about the glories of Armenian wine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKHrg7w3_o

PHOTO: The composer getting ready for his big day