Bring out the superlatives; we’ll need the best of them.

‘Superb’ seems petty praise for Saturday’s event at Powers Auditorium; the crowd, the Symphony, the Butler, the music. ‘Grand’ may not be good enough.

January 24, 2009. The Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Randall Craig Fleischer, performed the world premier of composer Gregory Prechel’s “Impressions at the Butler Institute of American Art,” exciting the rousing acclaim of thousands.

This was much more than a concert of classical music. And though it would be silly to compare it to the inauguration of Barack Obama for historic moment, it was a close rival for improbability.

The Youngstown Symphony and the Butler Institute both belie their fates. In a community too small and shrinking, too poor and severely distressed, neither should even exist, yet both are flourishing, and enhancing their excellence.

The reason, the people. Those who can support the arts, do, and they packed Youngstown’s elegant Edward W. Powers Auditorium for the performance.

“Impressions” is the first commissioned work for the Youngstown Symphony, and Fleischer caught the ecstasy of the occasion, telling the audience, “We’re going to keep doing this.”

Prechel, a composer, arranger and orchestrator of more the 60 orchestral creations, including the music for major Disney movies, commemorated the Butler’s matchless collection of major American artistic masterpieces in a work which was one year from conception to performance.

Large screens on each side of the stage showed the internationally revered paintings which inspired the eight-part composition, including Norman Rockwell’s “Lincoln, The Railsplitter,” Winslow Homer’s “Snap the Whip,” and William Gropper’s “Youngstown Strike,” among many others, with varied themes both descriptive and dramatic.

It is hardly insignificant that the Symphony also played two other classical pieces magnificently: Tchaikovsky’s lovely and lyrical  “Overture Fantasy, ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” and Dvorak’s “Concerto in B Minor for Cello and Orchestra,” with world-renowned cellist Wendy Warner, which both drew enthusiastic standing ovations.

The art, the music, and the people who support them; they are JamBrain’s inspiration and pride.