MTT and the SFS celebrate the American sound with world premieres by John Adams and Mason Bates

On March 15, 16 & 17, MTT and the San Francisco Symphony will present two world premieres at Davies Symphony Hall as part of the American MavericksFestival, their month-long exploration of the American sound.

Their program will open with Mason Bates’sMass Transmission, a work that showcases his unique style of electronica and choral writing. This will be followed by John Adams’s Absolute Jest, a piece based on scherzo fragments from late Beethoven quartets and to be performed in collaboration with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. In addition to these two world premieres, the concerts will also include Feldman’s Piano and Orchestra featuring Emanuel Ax at the keyboard. The program concludes withAmériques by the French American composer Edgard Varèse.

This year’s American Mavericks Festival has also given the world premieres of Meredith Monk’s Realm Variations and Morton Subotnick’s Jacob’s Room: Monodrama. You can hear Monk’s Realm Variations in Ann Arbor (March 25) and New York (March 30), and her performance of John Cage’s Song Books in Ann Arbor (March 23) and at New York’s Carnegie Hall (March 27). Subotnick’s Jacobs’ Room will be performed in Ann Arbor (March 25) and in New York (March 30).