Tchaik 5 & Mason Bates’ World’s Greatest Synth

This week, the San Francisco Symphony brings together two composers—one past and one present—for an inspired pairing of audience favorites. Guest conductor Teddy Abrams leads the orchestra in the West Coast premiere of World’s Greatest Synth by the internationally renowned Bay Area composer Mason Bates. A fixture as a DJ in the splashiest nightclubs around town, Bates turns his ear for layering sound, rhythm and texture upon the infinitely variable palette of the symphony orchestra (plus a pair of laptops). Bates' work appears side-by-side with another master musical colorist—but in a 19th-century aesthetic—Tchaikovsky, who delivers a volcanic rush of irresistible melodies in his thundering Symphony No. 5.