Just in time for the music lover in your family, here are reviews of three new compact discs from musicians who have played a big part in the local music scene over the past year. While performed by classical artists, it’s hard to imagine three more distinct styles of expression.

“Got a Little Rhythm”

Amy Burton, soprano; Patrick Mason, baritone; John Musto, piano

Grade: A

Bridge CD 9430, available at amazon.com or arkivmusic.com

In October, John Musto and his wife, Amy Burton, gave a recital in Packard Hall on the Colorado College campus that, from all reports, was a stunner. I wanted to be there, but a cold kept me at home.

So when this new CD appeared at my doorstep courtesy of Bridge Records, I was hoping to get at least some of the sensation of the concert. Thanks to this inspired recording, Amy and John are at the ready anytime I want to be charmed and delighted.

Joining them on this 19-song survey of the “Great American Songbook” is their buddy CU-Boulder faculty member Patrick Mason. With barely a misstep, this is a welcome onslaught of witty lyrics, infectious melody and great singing.

The canvas for all this is Musto’s remarkable keyboard artistry. He fills up the sound and adds piquant pronouncements to complement these mini-masterpieces. Burton’s interpretations will make you contemplate the moment and laugh out loud and Mason brings unexpected beauty and wisdom to the familiar and forgotten. The Gershwins, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Vernon Duke, Richard Rodger, Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin never had it so good. Highly recommended.

Peter Lieberson

“Piano Concerto No. 3” and “Viola concerto”

Steven Beck, piano; Roberto Diaz, viola; Odense Symphony; Scott Yoo, conductor

Grade B+

Bridge CD 9412, available at amazon.com or arkivmusic.com

Peter Lieberson died in 2011 – but not before making a powerful and indelible footprint on America’s musical landscape.

Here, with the help of two musicians often heard in these parts – violinist/conductor Scott Yoo from the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and Steven Beck from Quattro Mani – are two first recordings that are challenging to the ear but enlightening to the spirit.

It would be a mistake to call Lieberson’s last piano concerto from 2003 “program music,” but each of its movements is inspired by a literary source.

Pablo Neruda’s poem “Leviathan” encourages the opening movement. The tension is immediate and enduring as Beck’s percussive piano holds serve against Yoo’s highly agitated orchestra – here Denmark’s Odense Symphony.

The music dramatically shifts to complement the beloved “Canticle to Brother Sun” by St. Francis of Assisi. Here is a vision of peace and order to be discussed and ultimately debated.

The modern world surfaces in the finale, which mirrors the terrain of “Dog Creek Mainline” from America’s current poet laureate, Charles Wright. Rhythms are more square and its jazzy sounds pay homage to George Gershwin as Beck and Yoo’s orchestra display appealing flash.

Inspired by the unique sonority of the viola, Lieberson’s next work is far more lyric and accessible. The “Viola Concerto,” written in 1992, receives a bravura performance from Roberto Diaz.

Here, Lieberson channels Bela Bartok and there is a corresponding folk-musiclike quality to the sound. .

Tom Taylor

“Ishi Sings”

Mercury Ensemble, conducted by Thomas Blomster

Grade: B

Membrane Music 103, available at cdbaby.com/cd/tomtaylor12

The world was shocked when, in 1911, Ishi, the lone survivor of the Northern California Yahi Native American tribe, “surrendered” to the modern age.

During his final years, he recorded stories and song in his native language on Edison wax cylinders. Guitarist and composer Tom Taylor, of the performance faculty at Colorado College, composed a 17-minute evocative setting for three extracts of Ishi that successfuly integrates the sound of modern American music in the Copland tradition with the modalities inherent to Ishi’s tunes.

What could have been nothing more than a novelty turns out to be a deeply moving reflection on the collision between the ancient and modern worlds. Most impressive is how Taylor creates musical portals through which Ishi is seemingly channeled.

Denver’s Mercury Ensemble plays with beauty and intensity and the close-miked recording is natural and dynamic.