BUTLER TWP — From the green light to the checkered flag, Butler County Symphony Orchestra’s “Celebrate Butler” concert on Saturday concluded the season with a rousing win for the orchestra and Maestro Matthew Kraemer.

The tribute to many Butler County industries and people blended photographs and music to give the audience a grand tour of Butler’s past and its present.

John Adams’ “Short Ride in a Fast Machine” acknowledged Butler as the home of the Jeep. Starting out with a low rumble, the piece accelerated to a pulse-pounding crescendo while images of the earliest Bantam Jeeps gave way to scenes from recent Bantam Jeep Heritage Festivals projected on two screens flanking the stage.

Switching from roads to railroads, the Pullman Standard decades were featured to the accompaniment of Aaron Copeland’s arrangement of the American folk song “John Henry.” The intentional dissonance evoked the random sounds of heavy machinery while the strings took up a quickening rhythm of steam engine wheels.

A second Copeland work, “Quiet City,” was the frame for images of downtown Butler. Highly impressionistic, the hauntingly beautiful trumpet solos played by Josh Boudreau reverberated as though bouncing off the facades of the buildings in the pictures.

Another Western Pennsylvania gem was personified by the stunning saxophone performance of Young Artist Competition winner Sarah Veronica Hetrick, whose playing of “Tableaux de Provence” by Paule Maurice was impeccable.

The five-movement piece changed from bouncy to languid to elemental to solemn in quick succession. The final movement aptly flittered through long arpeggios as it painted the image of a bumblebee in flight.

Her tone, interpretation and control were superb.

As a musical depiction of the Maridon Museum and its contents, Maurice Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite” initially seemed an odd choice but the delicacy of the porcelain figurines and jade carvings were perfectly suited to the music.

Starting out with an innocent theme, progressing through orchestrally-created bird calls to the strong oriental theme of the third movement, and ending with tender sonorities, the orchestra played each transition with consummate skill.

Two movements of local composer/musician Vincent Sanzotti’s “Symphony in C” were an emphatic nod to Butler’s flourishing culture. Reminiscent of some of the works of Charles Ives, the music contrasted angular, complex rhythms with waltzlike melodies in a challenging blend of sounds. The amalgamation was at times dissonant and yet vaguely familiar, creating a sense of half-remembered dreams.

Photographs of Moraine State Park were set to “In Nature’s Realm” by Antonin Dvorak. The visual and auditory images complimented each other well.

Flowing from a majestic waltz to joyful abandon to ominous tones reminiscent of impending storms, the work was beautifully played by the orchestra.

The final Butler County treasure to be featured was the concert choir of Slippery Rock University as it joined piano virtuoso Nanette Solomon and the orchestra in presenting the “Choral Fantasy” of Ludwig van Beethoven.

The dazzling but extensive instrumental dialogue between the piano and the orchestra seemed to belie the “choral” title.

When the chorus’ entrance finally came it was well worth the wait. The precise enunciation and tone on the part of the singers revealed excellent preparation by director Stephen Barr that was marred only by the limitations of the building’s acoustics.

Nevertheless, the bombastic work brought the season to a final victorious crescendo.