This has been a week like no other for the Las Vegas Philharmonic. The group has been rehearsing for its debut performance in the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts, where the orchestra should finally sound as it was intended. State-of-the-art acoustics and an orchestra shell, projecting the music outward, leave nothing to disappear in the wings, waft upward or slip backstage.

And then there’s the program: Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, a colossal five-movement dramatic composition that announces itself boldly at the start and charges into nearly every emotion along the philosophical journey of life. It’s dark, celebratory, lyrical, melancholy, bombastic, tender, angry, dirge-like, stormy, poetic and joyous.

Add to that the voices of three Las Vegas chorale groups and two international operatic soloists—soprano Marie Plette and mezzo-soprano Eugenie Grunewald—and you have the makings of a hold-onto-your hat evening. In short, Reynolds Hall should be electrifying Saturday night.

Why Mahler’s Second? It’s a whole world unto itself, a watershed piece. It’s not just any concert. This night needed something of a signature celebratory nature.

What’s going to be different for audiences? There’s a colossal difference in the sound. People will literally think it’s a different orchestra. At Ham Hall the sound is dead. Here, there’s no place for the sound to go but out.

How does it feel? You cannot really put into words what’s going on this week. We have this amazing program in this great hall. The place has sold out. [The work] is complex musically, technically, emotionally. There’s a huge chorus. It’s really a once-in-a lifetime thing.