The Princeton University Orchestra sent its members home for the holidays with a concert of music ranging from chipper and lively to toweringly rich. Friday night’s performance of the University Orchestra at Richardson Auditorium (the concert was also presented Thursday night) combined the vibrant brass of 16th-century Giovanni Gabrieli with the melodic lyricism of Franz Schubert, topped off with the symphonic complexity of Gustav Mahler.

Conductor Michael Pratt began the concert Friday night with a nod to the season with a selection from Gabrieli’s extensive antiphonal brass choir repertory. Three brass quartets stood around the Richardson balcony, while Mr. Pratt directed traffic from the stage. Each choir was scored slightly differently, with the opening center choir showing off crisp trumpets on the rhythms of Gabrieli’s Canzon a 12. The horns, trombones, and tubas of the other two brass choirs supported the sound well as the antiphonal music soared around the hall.

Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor has been heard more than once in Richardson this past year, but audiences never seem to tire of its familiar melodies and elegant orchestration. Schubert began his “Unfinished” symphony as a conventional work of the time, but for unknown reasons never added the third and fourth movements. The Princeton University Orchestra began the work with 12 richly-playing celli, paired with lean and appropriately agitated violins. Throughout the two movements which comprise this work, clarinetist Ryan Budnick provided elegant and sensitive solo lines, as the orchestra easily found the contrasts between lyrical and foreboding styles. Mr. Pratt led the players through a poignant and songlike second movement “Andante,” while allowing a Viennese flow to unfold. Mr. Budnick continued to add a wide range of colors and dramatic effects to the solo clarinet lines, answered by expressive oboe lines played by Ethan Petno.

While the Schubert Symphony was “unfinished,” the orchestral works of Gustav Mahler were monumental enough to more than make up for Schubert’s incomplete piece. Schubert worked within the symphonic framework of his time, but Mahler expanded orchestral forms to the outermost limits possible. Das Lied von der Erde was referred to by Mahler as “A Symphony for Tenor and Alto Voice and Orchestra,” and certainly brought out the best from the players who filled the stage at Richardson. As with many of Mahler’s works, brass calls the music to order, and from the outset, Mr. Pratt kept the orchestra precise, showing that Mahler does not have to be bombastic. As much as was going on within the score, the musicians seemed to instinctively know when and where they fit into the texture.

The six-movement Das Lied alternated tenor and mezzo-soprano soloists to express the German translation of the T’ang dynasty text. Tenor Daniel Weeks, a veteran of opera and oratorio nationwide, had both music and character well in hand, communicating especially well Mahler’s concept of youth in the third movement. It was a bit hard to hear Mr. Weeks at times when the orchestra moved into a full and lush Romantic mode, but his portrayal of the Chinese texts was exact.

It is difficult to find a mezzo-soprano to handle the vocal and dramatic demands of Mahler, and Princeton University is lucky to have one such person in their midst. Barbara Rearick, on the faculty of the University’s music department, well found the plaintive and reflective nature of the second movement autumnal text, accompanied by haunting violins, long oboe lines, and a thoughtful solo cello from Spencer Shen. With clear diction throughout her three movements, Ms. Rearick seemed tailor-made for this period of music and vocal register.

All members of an orchestra are kept very busy during the music of Mahler, and Mr. Pratt kept the ensemble lush within a well-controlled Romantic framework. Despite the thick orchestration, Mahler’s music is light at times, depicting text of youth and flowers. Instrumental solos abounded, including from oboist Tiffany Huang, flutist Nicole Odzowski, bassoonist Luise Zhong, and clarinetist Paul Chang. Horns play a large role in Mahler’s orchestral works, and throughout the six movements of Das Lied, a quartet of horns was very clean.

The music of Gustav Mahler is obviously very close to Michael Pratt’s heart, and with this performance, the players of the Princeton University Orchestra could go home for holiday break assured that the orchestra in which they play can handle anything.

The Princeton University Orchestra’s next performance will be on Friday and Saturday, March 4-5 at Richardson Auditorium. Featured will be the winners of the 2016 concerto competition, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. For information call (609) 258-9220.