January 27, 1984

Friday BRUBECK 'MASS' PREMIERE The pianist Dave Brubeck has written more than 100 jazz pieces for his quartet. Less known, perhaps, are his six sacred works. The most recent, ''Mass: To Hope!'', will receive its New York premiere tonight at 7:30 in Avery Fisher Hall, with the Musica Sacra Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Richard Westenburg. Mr. Brubeck, who studied composition with Darius Milhaud, will play improvisatory sections of the work with his quartet. Someone else playing those sections, he notes, would be free to play them in any style, not necessarily jazz. Also on the program are sacred works by two other living American composers: Conrad Susa's ''Hymns for the Amusement of Children'' and Aaron Copland's ''In the Beginning.'' Tickets: $11 to $18. To charge: 874-6770. CATCHPENNY TWIST' Two young Belfast songwriters, totally apolitical and bent on making it in show business, find they can't escape the troubles of Northern Ireland in Stewart Parker's ''Catchpenny Twist,'' which has its New York premiere tonight at 8 at the SoHo Rep, 19 Mercer Street. There's a live band, and songs sung by Jana Schneider in a part that Patti Lupone played when ''Catchpenny'' received its American premiere at the Hartford Stage in 1978. The music is by Shaun Davey, the lyrics by Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker is the author of another play set in his homeland, ''Spokesong,'' which ran at the Circle in the Square in 1979. Tickets: $8. Reservations: 925-2588. Saturday A DINOSAUR LIVES

A picture caption in some copies yesterday with articles about the State of the Union Message misidentified Maureen Reagan. She is President Reagan's daughter by his former marriage.

On Sunday, George and Catherine Layton plan to pick up their 6-year-old grandson, Mark Foster, and take him to the nearby Oakdale Mall. They want to visit a toy store, watch the fountain, then cap off the afternoon at Burger King or the Friendly Ice Cream Shop. For Mr. and Mrs. Layton, however, this is not just an ordinary weekend outing. It is the first time they have been allowed to see their grandson in more than two years, and it marks the culmination of a bitter court battle that began shortly after Mark's parents were divorced.

Congressional Democrats insisted today that President Reagan would have to make the first move if negotiations to close the budget deficit were to get anywhere. ''We want to find out where he is,'' the House Speaker, Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., said at a press briefing today. ''He's running the Government; we're not running the Government.'' In his State of the Union Message Wednesday night, Mr. Reagan proposed a bipartisan effort to make a ''down payment'' of about $100 billion over three years on the deficit bill. Many lawmakers agreed with Representative James R. Jones, Democrat of Oklahoma, when he called the proposal ''a step in the right direction.''

''If I wrote a book, no one would come to my wake.'' - Meade H. Esposito. (B3:1.)