BUTLER TWP — The Butler County Symphony Orchestra’s Music with a Conscience concert Saturday night at the Butler Intermediate High School touched all the bases and headed for home in a performance that appealed to all tastes.

Opening the concert with an old favorite was Gioachino Rossini’s recounting of political rebellion in his “William Tell Overture.” Music director Matthew Kraemer deftly led the initial placid opening notes of the cello section, lulling the audience before releasing a storm of sound. Most of the audience reacted well to the familiar gallop and even more so to what has become ingrained in the national psyche as “The Lone Ranger” theme.

The next act of rebellion arrived in the form of “Piano Concerto No. 23” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had just been fired from a position as court musician. It was done with exquisite tone and precision by guest artist Cahill Smith.

The first movement, Allegro, was joyful and featured complex cadenzas which were a delight to hear. The placid Largo section followed with subtle tonalities and long solo passages for Smith to demonstrate his interpretive skills.

The Allegro assai movement sparkled with charming melody and perky rhythms. The piano and the orchestra took turns elaborating on each other’s phrases and lending a playful, almost-competitive air to the final movement.

Smith and the orchestra appeared to have a great time tossing the musical ball back and forth to end the work.

As with the Mozart, the last movement of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5” is the most appealing to a general audience. The first three movements were a study in dissonance and contrasts which defied the traditional notions of melody and tempo. It reflected the musical rebellion of Stalinist Russia.

The Moderato — Allegro non troppo section opened with the lower strings playing a dramatic theme beneath an atonal melody in the violins. At times strident and other times meandering, the theme passed on to the wind instruments, eventually including a military beat established by the percussion section and accelerating to a double-time repeat of the opening theme.

The Allegretto movement also began with the low strings but in an aggressive rhythm that is answered by the reeds and woodwinds. It took on the aspect of a grotesque calliope of a carnival merry-go-round.

Bittersweet, almost inaudible notes played by the second violins set the stage for the Largo movement. A high floating line by the harp heralded a gradual crescendo played in slow tempo. Brief solos by other instruments interrupted a sustained tremulous line played by the violins.

All tonalities were mournful and while they hinted at resolving into sweeter sounds, the music repeatedly backed away to remain melancholy.

The final movement, Allegro non troppo, was rambunctious in the beginning. The quick tempoed theme faded to a quiet middle section and then reverted to a subdued but no less threatening military pattern that built in volume until ending with a surprisingly harmonic and exultant ending.

While an educational experience for most of the audience, Shostakovich’s work provided a rousing and triumphant conclusion to the concert. Kraemer and the orchestra rose to the occasion and knocked it out of the park.