Dennis Russell Davies and Bruckner Orchester Linz do new Philip Glass symphony at Mondavi

American composer Philip Glass turned 80 on January 31, and there were all-Glass concerts around the world, including the Carnegie Hall premiere of a new symphony by Glass (his 11th) by conductor Dennis Russell Davies and the Bruckner Orchester Linz.

Davies and the orchestra then took the new Glass symphony on tour, and they’ll visit the Mondavi Center on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with decidedly different programs. Friday’s concert will be all-American: Duke Ellington’s Black, Beige and Brown Suite; plus two by Glass: First Violin Concerto and the new Eleventh Symphony (both commissioned by Davies).

In the ’80s, Davies conducted the composer’s early orchestral pieces at the Cabrillo Festival in Santa Cruz and hosted Glass in 1990. Davies also returned from Europe to conduct the premiere of the Glass opera Appomattox in San Francisco in 2007. Davies has recorded the first 10 Glass symphonies as a set.

The Friday concert will be preceded by a 7 p.m. conversation with Davies that is well worth attending. Friday tickets are $35-$85, general admission.

Saturday’s concert will be more traditional and Germanic: The Spring Symphony of Robert Schumann (1841), The Violin Concerto by American composer Samuel Barber (1939), and Suite from Der Rosenkavalier (1945, from the 1910 Richard Strauss opera). Saturday tickets are $62-$125 for general admission.

The violin soloist for both programs is veteran Robert McDuffie, who premiered the Glass Second Violin Concerto in 2010 (including a performance at Mondavi).