Mozart Society tuning up for birthday celebration at UNLV

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 9 a.m.

Celebrating the birthday of one of the greatest composers in history is not as simple as singing "Happy Birthday to You" when there's so much more to commend roughly 50 symphonies, nearly a dozen operas, scores of piano concertos, sacred vocal works and 42 violin sonatas.

To pay respect to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the child prodigy who left his final requiem unfinished on his untimely death at age 35, Isabelle Emerson, president and the founder of the Mozart Society of America, along with the UNLV faculty will present an hourlong celebration of the composer's music, followed by birthday cake and wine.

The performance will include the trio for piano clarinet and viola, "Kegelstatt," "Quintet for Piano and Winds" and selections from "Don Giovanni," performed by members of UNLV Opera Theater.

Musicians include Stephen Caplan on the oboe, Marina Sturm on the clarinet, Bill Bernatis on the horn, Janis McKay on the bassoon, Gina Warnick on the viola and Enrico Elisi on piano. Emerson will provide a light narrative throughout the program.

"I'll talk about what he was up to when he composed the various pieces," Emerson said. "It's very informal."

The concert, presented at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in UNLV's Doc Rando Recital Hall, is a change of venue for the celebration, which is usually held at Winchester Community Center.

The Mozart birthday celebrations, Emerson said, began "six or seven" years ago with the local group Sierra Winds, of which Caplan, who also performs with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, is a member.

"Since the movie, everybody knows his story, or what they think is his story," Emerson said, referring to "Amadeus," Peter Schaeffer's play-turned-movie that offered a wild portrayal of the brilliant young artist.

"(His story) appeals to the popular imagination and the music is so incredible. We certainly don't do it for others."

True. Other than a party for the 300th anniversary of Bach's birth in 1985, in which 150 programs were printed (and twice that many fans attended), there have been no formal celebrations for late composers on their special days.

Regarding Mozart, Emerson said, "The music is so dramatic. The operas are such fun. The concertos are so dramatic. It's fun for people to see that."

And it would be unusual for UNLV to do nothing. The Mozart Society of America, a 200-member organization founded in 1996, is based at UNLV.

Its national and international members are scholars, musicians, professors and laymen who discuss the composer and network about scholarships and happenings.

"It has a lot of academic people in it. We have a lot of amateurs who love the music of Mozart," Emerson said. "We have a few writers. We have a couple of scientists."

Emerson founded the organization based on what she saw as a need.

"I looked around and saw there was a Lizst Society, Bach Society, Beethoven. There was no Mozart society," Emerson said. "Here in the West, I felt, and a lot of other people felt, so isolated from what was going on. I just didn't hear of anything going on back East and the information we did receive was in German and not everybody knows German."

And like many Mozart fans, Emerson has her favorites.

" 'Don Giovanni' is very close to my heart," she said. "The 'Kegelstatt' has always been one of my favorite pieces. The music is so gorgeous and the combination of clarinet and viola is beautiful, and the way the piano plays them off one another, it's like strawberries and sour cream."