Long Beach Symphony: Magnificent Mozart & Mahler

Terrace Theater, 300 E Ocean Blvd, Long Beach Convention Center. June 6th. The Long Beach Symphony plays Magnificent Mozart & Mahler — a program anchored by two composers who could not be more different in temperament and could not be more fundamental to understanding what orchestral music can do when it's built correctly.

Mozart is economy. Every note is placed because it belongs, and removing any one of them would change the architecture of the whole. Mahler is excess, is weight, is the feeling of being caught inside something too large for any one emotion to hold. A program that puts them on the same night has a point of view about what a symphony season should argue. The Terrace Theater is a serious performing arts venue with the acoustics to hold that argument.

Tickets at ticketmaster.com. June 6th in Long Beach. This is the kind of night that works for people who have never been to a symphony and want to understand what the fuss is about, and it works equally for people who have been going for decades. The program earns both audiences. Show up and let the room tell you what it knows.