In general, I am not a big fan of Khachaturian's. A good deal of his music, to me, ranges from the uninteresting (Spartacus), to the silly (much of Ganyeh), to the downright asinine (the 3rd Symphony). But there are a few pieces in which I maintain more than a passing interest. One is the extremely catchy violin concerto, a fact which I was recently reminded of in a beautiful performance by one of my students.

The work was written for David Oistrakh, one of the legendary violinists of the 20th century. This month's clip is from his second recording of the work (the first is quite good, but the sound quality is horrible). As a bonus, we get the composer himself at the podium. See if you can't help but smile when listening to the infectious opening of the first movement.