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Music lovers have an unusual treat in store. For the first time in Bangkok, they will have the opportunity to enjoy the entire cycle of sonatas for piano and violin by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - but not all at one time.

Performed by violinist Jonathon Glonek and pianist Usa Napawan, the cycle is divided into three separate performances: Sonata 16 tomorrow, Sonata 713 on August 6 and Sonata 1,418 on September 4 - all at the NIST Auditorium on Sukhumvit Soi 15.

Of course, Usa and Glonek are excited about the performances. Usa is well known for her interpretations of Mozart's works. The young pianist - a graduate of Chulalongkorn and Mahidol universities, where she earned a master's in music performance - has a self-assurance that comes from the deep concentration required by her work.

"You'd never believe how difficult Mozart can be," she says. "He changes in the space of two short bars, and those two bars can be extremely important. You really have to concentrate."

Usa's entire family is tuned into music. Her sister plays the violin, and she met her husband, a violinist, when he was looking for someone to accompany him on the piano.

Her greatest influence, however, is her grandmother, who grew up in a poor neighbourhood in Japan and never had the chance to study music, Usa recalls. But in the afternoons, Usa' grandmother would sit by the window and watch the children of richer families as they took piano lessons. She would follow them by tapping her fingers on the windowsill.

"When she saw how much my sister and I loved music, she encouraged us all she could," Usa says.

Now, apart from her performances, Usa teaches piano students of all levels. "It's time consuming, but I love it," she says.

For Glonek, the Mozart sonatas are a departure from his usual concentration on later composers, such as Bach, Brahms and Paganini. He has presented many programmes in solo performances throughout Europe, the United States, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Glonek is already well known to lovers of Western classical music. While also handling the work of his wine-distribution business, the young Australian has been putting on concerts regularly for the Bangkok audience. He has been playing the violin since he was 14, having studied the instrument in Australia and the US and held positions in several professional orchestras.

He teaches as a guest

lecturer in violin studies at Chulalongkorn University. He also organises and promotes Western classical music for audiences unfamiliar with these works and to underprivileged communities that would not normally have the opportunity to hear live performances of Bach, Brahms and Beethoven.

"I think this music can be a valuable experience for any person," he says.

For the upcoming performances, however, he loves the change from the composers he usually performs and agrees with Usa.

"Mozart is deceptively easy, but you have to pay attention to every note, every nuance." The struggle, he adds, is for clarity, balance and transparency. Mozart (1756 to 1791) began composing these sonatas in his early teens, finishing the final one a few years before his early death.

"They're charming, witty and energetic," Glonek says, "everything that characterises Mozart as a composer."

The sonatas present not only a challenge of artistic depth, he says, but also a specialised approach toward technique in order to perform them.

"Mozart is not a bunch of notes strung together. Each note, each transition, each pause has a reason for being there," he says, "and it's our aim to make it understandable to the audience."

He pauses a bit, then says, "And enjoyable."