George Gershwin’s Concerto in F was a response to demands for a “proper concerto” after the success of Rhapsody in Blue, avoiding programmatic content while providing a feast of tunes both uplifting and nostalgic. Originally intended as music for a film, his upbeat Rhapsody No. 2 describes the bustling Manhattan cityscape while under construction. Sourced from his hit musical Girl Crazy, I Got Rhythm Variations was Gershwin’s last full score. Pianist Orion Weiss is one of the most sought after soloists and collaborators of his generation of young American musicians.

Argentina’s Astor Piazzolla reinvented tango, combining classical techniques such as fugue with elements of jazz, unusual instrumentation, and occasional spiky dissonance. His style, soon dubbed Nuevo tango, spawned new generations of tango musicians. This recording by Cuartetango – the ensembles second CD – is dedicated to the memory and legacy of Piazzolla. It features compositions by Piazzolla and his contemporaries, as well as several pieces by post-Piazzolla artists. The arrangements for string quartet, sometimes with bandoneon and sometimes with voice, show how tango continues to evolve.

PURCHASE TITLE AT AMAZON.COM

The critically acclaimed Arizona-based Phoenix Chorale originally focused on music of the Renaissance and baroque periods, but today is equally dedicated to the creation and performance of new music. On this disc the Choir performs choral works and settings of sacred texts by the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. When he first heard Gjeilo’s ‘Ubi caritas,’ Charles Bruffy was instantly hooked, finding the music ‘refreshing and magnetic.’ Bruffy brought Gjeilo’s music to the Chorale and its audiences and the response was immediate.  Soon after, Gjeilo was invited to be the Chorale’s first Composer-in-Residence, and the track Phoenix, a setting of Agnus Dei, is dedicated to Bruffy and the Phoenix Chorale in honor of its fiftieth anniversary.

PURCHASE TITLE AT AMAZON.COM

The story of love is inexhaustible. Let Chanticleer into your heart to share the enchanting and disturbing emotion that has evoked more poetry and music than any other. The music found here is by Whitacre, Paulus, Tavner, de Vivanco, Victoria, Ellington and more. This CD is a live concert recording of Chanticleer’s 2011/12 Season opening concert, “Love Story.” It was recorded in front of a live audience on September 16 and 21 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The concert features Vince Peterson’s arrangement of Somebody to Love, written by the late great Freddie Mercury of Queen.

PURCHASE TITLE AT AMAZON.COM

In June 2008, Dmitri Hvorostovsky invited Sondra Radvanovsky to be his guest star in the prestigious Moscow concert series “Hvorostovsky and Friends,” with conductor Constantine Orbelian and the Philharmonia of Russia. This glamorous occasion, captured on film for Russian television, marked these artists’ first ever musical collaboration – and proved to be a historic event that documented for posterity one of those all-too-rare instances of magical artistic alchemy between two great opera stars. Their electrifying performance was an instant sensation, and a potent preview of the two stars’ effusively acclaimed later appearances together in Il Trovatore at Covent Garden, the Met, and the San Francisco Opera. Delos recorded the live concert, which was released later as the critically acclaimed CD Verdi Opera Scenes. Upon obtaining the film footage, Delos collaborated with California film editor Steve Scoville, who expertly synched the footage with Delos’ concert audio, and the end result takes the viewer/listener to Moscow’s Great Hall for the concert’s most unforgettable moments, with stunning “you are there” sonic and visual impact.

PURCHASE TITLE AT ARKIVMUSIC.COM

Available for the first time on DVD, Naïve presents the 2011 world premiere staged recording of Orlando Furioso, seven years after the CD release that launched contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux onto the world stage. Filmed at the Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysees, this DVD features performances by renowned singers including Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Jennifer Larmore, Veronica Cangemi, and Philippe Jaroussky, conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi.

“With the passage of time and the accumulation of experience, the psychological genius of Vivaldi grips us even more strongly than in the past. Today his music appears to us even obviously as a veritable scanner of the human soul, revealing to us with still greater intensity the incredibly timeless character of the protagonists and their problems. More than ever, Alcina, Angelica, and Orlando affirm in our eyes and hearts their stature as our contemporaries. Their strength and weaknesses, their sufferings and joys, seem so palpable that our empathy for them has never been so total. Never hast his masterpiece moves us so deeply.” Jean-Christophe Spinosi and Frederic Delamea

PURCHASE DVD TITLE AT ARKIVMUSIC.COM