With Mozart, Let the Master Lead : Music: Pianist Daniel Shapiro strives to convey the composer’s essence, not others’ ideas about him.

Pianist Daniel Shapiro is decidedly vocal with his ideas about Mozart.

“In certain schools of performance practice, Mozart tends to be played according to a certain set of dictums . . . that come between performer and composer,” said Shapiro, the soloist in the “Happy Birthday, Mozart” concerts with the Mozart Camerata today in Irvine and Sunday in Newport Beach. He’ll play the composer’s Concerto No. 22 in E-flat.

“Some believe, for instance, that to be authentic, phrases should be short,” he said. “This is the antithesis of good music-making. A piece of music is really one long phrase, and with Mozart primarily a composer of opera and other vocal music, one needs to keep that in mind.

“Especially in this concerto,” added Shapiro, who lives in Iowa City but is staying with his parents in Corona del Mar while he’s here. “The piano part sounds as if the countess in ‘(The Marriage of) Figaro’ is singing. In terms of humanity and expression, it’s a noble, elegant work, one of the very greatest of (all) concertos.”

The overture to “The Marriage of Figaro” in fact opens the program; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor closes it. Ami Porat, the orchestra’s artistic director, will conduct.

Shapiro’s assessment of the concerto centerpiece as among the greatest begs the question: Why isn’t it played nearly so much as the those flanking it in the Mozart catalogue, for example, Concerto No. 21 in C (dubbed “Elvira Madigan” in the late 20th Century) and Concerto No. 23 in A?

“I’m at a loss,” Shapiro admitted. Shapiro will play different pianos at the two weekend performances, but both are modern grands. Shapiro insisted that the grand piano’s capability for a more singing tone make it, and not period instruments, the superior vehicle for Mozart. “And if I were to choose between two nine-foot Steinways,” he noted, “I would choose the one with the most singing sound.”

The composer’s 239th birthday is Jan. 27; the performer’s 32nd was Friday.

Shapiro studied at USC. He also served as an opera coach at UCLA, which may explain his operatic approach to the piano. He’s now assistant professor of piano, and chamber music coach, at the University of Iowa.

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Since he last performed with the Camerata in 1992, Shapiro has been shedding academic notions about Mozart.

“I’m trying to foist fewer ideas onto the music and onto Mozart, to let Mozart speak for himself,” Shapiro said. “I’m not playing dispassionately now, I’m leaning toward directness. Mozart can suffer from over-cerebrating. The performance should sound more Mozart, less ideas about Mozart.”

Whatever ideas about Mozart he retains, Shapiro shies from calling himself a Mozart specialist. He prefers to say that he also concentrates on the other Central European masters, i.e., Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. (Next on his agenda is a performance of the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven sonatas, eight recitals over four weeks at the University of Iowa beginning in February.) Apparently the middle ground between stylistic approaches can be a very fine line, for Shapiro points out that works by these composers also suffer from under-cerebrating:

“In the playing of Mozart, and the other Central European composers, there often seems to be an emphasis on a kind of glitz, or surface prettiness, an over-polished, high-gloss sound for everything where qualities of performance get valued over depths of musical understanding and sincerity. People tend to be overawed, and pianistic slickness passes for great pianism.

“One needs to find the truth of the work of art,” he said. “One may never find it, but one must always be heading toward that.”

* Mozart Camerata will celebrate Mozart’s 239th birthday with pianist Daniel Shapiro tonight at 8 p.m. at Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Program will include the Overture to “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Piano Concerto No. 22, K. 482, and Symphony No. 40, K. 550. $19 to $29. (714) 854-4646. The program will be repeated Sunday at 4 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Church, 600 St. Andrews Road, Newport Beach. $14 to $29. (714) 250-3131.