Music of faith: Keith Lockhart will conduct Mahler score for Tanner Gift of Music concert

Last time Keith Lockhart was in Salt Lake City, he was wrapping up his Utah Symphony tenure by presiding over performances of Leonard Bernstein's polarizing, faith-challenging "Mass." Lockhart returns to town this week, and faith is center stage again: He will lead the orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection").

"Mahler was an artist who grappled with the concept of the reason for our existence, and of an existence beyond this earthly realm, for the entirety of his career," Lockhart said in a phone interview while walking through his Boston neighborhood.

What makes the Second Symphony notable, he said, is "the positive message of affirmation that ends it. There are elements

of struggle in the first four movements and in the first part of the fifth, but it ends with -- literally, the world opens up with the promise of a reward beyond this Earth. It's a great moment of music ... and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will make it even more spectacular."

Although the choir sings only in the last half of the final movement, its role is pivotal, notes Tabernacle Choir music director Mack Wilberg. "Even though it's not a lot of singing, it's significant," Wilberg said. "Every choral singer should have the opportunity [to sing this work]. It's absolutely glorious."

The free concerts are sponsored by the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music, a more-or-less-biennial series that brings the Utah Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir together with prominent guest artists such as conductor Robert Shaw and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. "It's a wonderful thing," Lockhart said, "great works of art presented by the two greatest arts organizations in the state of Utah, in a way that's free and accessible."

Scott Barrick, secretary of the Tanner Gift of Music Committee, noted that the series' two most recent editions (featuring the likes of Irish tenor Ronan Tynan and Broadway luminary Brian Stokes

Mitchell, and held in the cavernous LDS Conference Center) were pops-oriented. "We wanted to get back to our classical roots and back to the Tabernacle," said Barrick, who is also the Tabernacle Choir's general manager. "We knew Keith was leaving, and we wanted to give a nod to what he had done here. He built such a Mahler legacy, and Salt Lake has always been a Mahler town."

During his 11 seasons as Utah Symphony music director, Lockhart led the orchestra in all nine of Mahler's completed symphonies, the unfinished Tenth and the quasi-symphonic song cycle "Das Lied von der Erde." A highlight of that Mahler cycle: 2002's Tanner Gift of Music performances of the Eighth Symphony ("Symphony of a Thousand").

Lockhart, who turned 50 recently, said he's been keeping busy since leaving his Utah Symphony post. He continues as conductor of the Boston Pops and artistic adviser/principal conductor at North Carolina's Brevard Music Center. He just finished a run of "Carmen" with Boston Lyric Opera and, earlier this fall, was seen teaching a young contestant to conduct on the PBS children's game show "Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman." He will be back in Abravanel Hall for two weekends in February in his new role as Utah Symphony conductor laureate.