Mahler and Schubert

A huge symphony of a song, Gustav Mahler’s "The Song of the Earth" represents one of the Austrian composer's most emotionally complex works. He started to work on it shortly after being diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment; he hoped it would sustain him. “I am thirstier than ever for life and I find the ‘habit of living’ sweeter than ever,” he wrote at the time. Tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra will play it along with Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. An hour before the performance, Rabbi Roger C. Klein of The Temple – Tifereth Israel gives the pre-concert talk "Symphonic Song, Unfinished Business." Performances continue through Saturday, and tickets start at $29. (Niesel)