Amadeus Calls Tune at Mostly Mozart Festival : Music: The composer and summer really hit it off. Concertmaster William Preucil credits the works’ character.

SAN DIEGO--On any given summer night, it’s a safe bet that somewhere in the United States, Mozart is being performed under a festival banner bearing his name. From New York City’s Lincoln Center and its marathon Mostly Mozart Festival to more modest venues in Burlington, Vt., and Bartlesville, Okla., no fewer than 10 summer Mozart festivals compete with family barbecues and other seasonal rituals. California alone hosts four Mozart festivals between early June and the end of August.

It is unclear exactly why Americans have developed such a summer craving for music by the prolific Austrian. Some credit Tom Hulce’s manic portrayal of the composer in the popular movie “Amadeus.” But William Preucil, concertmaster for San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival, credits the character of Mozart’s music.

“Even in the early pieces that are simple emotionally, it all has that sparkle, a kind of wonder that people recognize as Mozart’s genius,” the 34-year-old violinist said last week over a cup of coffee before a morning rehearsal here. “The early stuff is like seeing a rainbow for the first time. The late music is a different kind of wonder, more like awe.”

Also, Preucil noted, there are certain practical considerations inherent in performing Mozart: All his instrumental music can be played with a chamber orchestra of fewer than 40 players.

“A Mozart orchestra is just the right size, especially for the budget of a festival just getting started,” he said.

Now in its fifth year, the 10-concert Mainly Mozart Festival, under the direction of conductor David Atherton, is built around performances by a festival orchestra whose members are drawn from conservatories and orchestras across the country. A few additional concerts are devoted to chamber music. The festival opened Friday at the historic Spreckels Theatre in downtown San Diego, where it continues through Sunday. Thursday , the Cleveland Quartet, of which Preucil is first violinist, will play a program of Mozart, Haydn and Dvorak.

This marks the Cleveland Quartet’s first appearance at the festival, but Preucil has been the concertmaster from the start. He said he keeps coming back because of the orchestra’s camaraderie.

“The way the players develop into an ensemble very quickly is a source of pride and joy, even though we come together only two weeks a year. The spirit in the rehearsals, which comes from both David Atherton and the players, makes it not seem like a job. We work hard at making the music good, but it’s not like toil. We have fun making music.”

Preucil grew up in a family of professional musicians; his mother was a violinist and his father a violist. The omnipresence of music is as natural and everyday to him as sports talk in a barber shop.

The first year of the Mainly Mozart Festival was pivotal in his career. In 1989, he had just given up his position as concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony to become the Cleveland Quartet’s first chair. Two members of the quartet, second violinist Peter Salaff and cellist Paul Katz, have been with the group from its formation 25 years ago. Violist James Dunham is, like Preucil, a relative newcomer, having joined in 1987.

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Preucil said he doesn’t “have any regrets about leaving the orchestra. I miss playing some of the repertory, but after 10 years with an orchestra I had ample opportunity to do all that, all those Beethoven and Brahms symphonies, and not just once.”

He believes in any case that composers tend to save their most intimate thoughts for the medium of the string quartet--no small reward to the thoughtful musician. And, because knowing the breadth of a composer’s output gives insight to each new piece he learns, Preucil’s orchestral background has given him an interpretive edge, especially in the quartet’s current project of recording all the Beethoven string quartets for the Telarc label.

Thursday, the Cleveland Quartet (which is not based in Cleveland but at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.) will play Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478, an aggressive work that some scholars identify as Mozart’s most Beethoven-like composition. The ensemble will be joined for the piece by British pianist John Lill. Preucil noted that the chance to work with an additional musician is one of the advantages of a festival appearance.

“It gives us a chance to share views with another artist and get some input into our music-making. Our schedule of daily practice and some 90 concerts a year tends to isolate us from the rest of the music world. We each go to various festivals in the summer so we don’t become stagnant, locked up in some room with only our own ideas.”

MAINLY MOZART

The remaining concerts:

* Thursday, 8 p.m.: The Cleveland Quartet.

* Friday, 8 p.m.: Pianist John Lill.

* Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 8 p.m.: The festival orchestra conducted by David Atherton.

All concerts will take place in the Spreckels Theatre, First and Broadway, downtown San Diego. Information: (619) 558-1000.