There’s something wonderful and not a little startling about holding a CD in your hand emblazoned with both the name of a major record company — Naxos — and a local institution — the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.

Let me tell you, it’s equally wonderful and not a little startling to listen to such a CD. Inside, on tracks that offer three works from American composer Paul Fetler, is a fine reminder of the sort of major-league playing the orchestra has been doing under conductor Arie Lipsky. In a blind taste test, local symphony or regional orchestra would not be your first picks. The playing is vital, alive and utterly polished.

The CD was recorded live over the course of concerts in 2007 and 2008 that featured Fetler’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with A2SO concertmaster Aaron Berofsky as soloist; his “Capriccio;” and his “Three Poems by Walt Whitman,” with Thomas H. Blaske as narrator. Fetler, now 89, was on hand for all the occasions, just as he was last week for a CD release party the A2SO hosted at the Michigan Theater. (The CD was released Dec. 15; it’s been available to download since fall.)

Paul Fetler counts himself delighted with this first recording devoted entirely to his work. And Lipsky, in typical fashion, counts the CD important not just for highlighting the orchestra’s work but for highlighting Fetler’s contributions to American music.

Those contributions should draw listeners in to this CD, the newest addition to Naxos’ “American Classics” series. Fetler’s evocative lyricism is a luscious underpinning in music that is itself protean in color, style and mood. "Three Poems by Walt Whitman” celebrates a quintessential American poet in a three-movement tone poem for orchestra and narrator that was a a Bicentennial commission. Unlike most such “pieces d’occasion,” this one is a keeper, rapturous, potent and atmospheric in its evocations of Whitman’s poems of nature, war and childhood.

Concertmaster Berofsky is wondrous in the violin solos — a feat he repeats in spades in the violin concerto on the disk. And in the dazzling “Capriccio,” it’s principal flute Penelope Fischer’s turn to shine. But the orchestra, under Lipsky’s direction, shines throughout. If you loved the concerts — or missed them — you’ll love this CD. And as an Ann Arborite, it’ll make you proud to claim the A2SO as the city’s own. You can also claim the landscape on the CD cover: the stunning scene is the Huron River at sunset, courtesy of Dave Siefkes, the A2SO’s marketing director, who snapped the picture.

Sample the music from the CD on the Naxos web site here (login required).

The CD is available for purchase at Borders, Barnes & Noble and the A2SO office (220 East Huron, Suite 470), with a $10.99 suggested retail price. It is also available for download at the Naxos web site.

Susan Isaacs Nisbett is a free-lance writer who covers classical music and dance for AnnArbor.com.