BUTLER TWP — The Butler County Symphony Orchestra and piano virtuoso Orion Weiss worked magic in the Folklore and Fairytales concert at the Butler Intermediate School Auditorium Saturday evening.

While the entire program was excellent and beautifully performed, the undisputed star of the evening was the spectacular artistry of young Weiss as he enchanted the audience with the notoriously difficult “Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor” by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

The so-called “Rach 3” has been the bane of generations of pianists but Weiss played with élan. Distinctively Russian sonority and rhythms required sensitivity and necessitated highly skilled interpretation to bring the work to full blossom. The piece runs the gamut of emotions from the gentle opening of the Allegro ma non tanto movement through intense, rampaging sections followed by the more introspective Intermezzo: Adagio movement and mesmerizingly familiar themes of the Finale.

Weiss alternately caressed then hammered the keys with fluidity belying the difficulty of the extremely complex passages. His vibrancy made the music shine. It was glorious to hear and a privilege to watch him play.

And the orchestra, expertly guided by Maestro Matthew Kraemer, enhanced the soloist without overpowering the piano. It is the mark of excellence in an orchestra to be able to augment as well as dominate.

Kraemer has, in his years on the podium, crafted a wonderful balance in the Butler Symphony which rivals the skills of orchestras in major cities. This was evidenced in the two fairytales comprising the first half of the program: “Sleeping Beauty (suite)” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Prokofiev's “Cinderella, Suite No. 1.”

Sleeping Beauty is the more familiar work since an adaptation of it was used by Walt Disney Studios' soundtrack of its 1959 animated movie. Originally composed as a ballet, the music was also welcomed as an orchestral suite.

The aggressive Introduction was attacked by the orchestra with precision. It was followed by the calmer Adagio, the amusing Pas de caractere and the graceful Panorama. Concluding with the beloved Sleeping Beauty Waltz, the orchestra masterfully adapted to the changes of tempo and style, presenting a lovely rendition of Tchaikovsky's version of the fairy tale.

Sergei Prokofiev was well-known for setting children's stories to music. His take on Cinderella also started life as a ballet. The music is not only expressive but charmingly impressionistic, giving the orchestra opportunity to excel at musically depicting Cinderella's beleaguered beginnings with minor tonalities, but also the nasty, demanding stepfamily, the magical transformation and the joyful waltzing at the ball. Most eloquent was the finale as the percussion section tick-tock-ed toward midnight with growing alarm only to be relieved at the happy ending.

It was an incandescent start of another season of magical music offered by Butler County Symphony Orchestra.