Depending on tempi, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 can run anywhere from 95 to 110 minutes. Even more than his other essays in the grandest of genres, this one is meant to conjure up an entire universe. Early on, Mahler wrote descriptors of the work’s six movements, and while he tossed them later, they’re not unhelpful, so here they are: “Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In,” “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me,” What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me,” “What Man Tells Me,” “What the Angels Tell Me,” and “What Love Tells Me.” (If you’re intuiting a Grand Tour of the Sublime, you’re reading the message loud and clear.) In an urban concert hall, a susceptible listener is apt to envision real and imaginary vistas on the vastest scale. But the prospect of experiencing this music in the Alpine setting of Verbier in the summertime is positively dizzying—not least because the Festival Orchestra of idealistic young instrumentalists on the threshold of professional careers give their A-list international maestros a sense of fresh, passionate discovery quite distinct from the mastery of the legendary standing ensembles of Amsterdam, Berlin, and Vienna. Sir Simon Rattle is their leader this time, with Magdalena Kožená on hand for the time-stopping solo part, set to the mystic text of Nietzsche. —Matthew Gurewitsch