The Attacca Quartet returns for its second Cal Performances appearance of the season as part of a celebration of composer John Adams’ 80th birthday. The ensemble’s history with Adams reaches back to its early years, when it recorded his complete music for string quartet and established a reputation for adventurous, deeply considered contemporary performance.

The program features the Bay Area premiere of Adams’ Iron Jig, a Cal Performances co-commission, and selections from John’s Book of Alleged Dances, whose sardonic energy draws on bluegrass, jazz, and prerecorded prepared-piano loops. Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132 places those works in dialogue with a profound late masterpiece.