Celebrating the Arrival of Success : Music: The mood was as lavish as the setting at SummerFest ‘90, where praise flowed like wine for the coming of age of the La Jolla concert series.

If the mood makes the party, the mood at the SummerFest ’90 gala given Saturday at the Romona Sahm estate was one of self-congratulation, leavened with a dash of awe and the faintest touch of surprise.

The object of all these semi-defined feelings was the uncontested coming of age of the SummerFest concert series, founded in 1986 by the La Jolla Chamber Music Society and now, according to its backers, the subject of not only national attention but national acclaim.

The SummerFest ’90 series opened Friday night at Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla, and will continue there through Tuesday under the direction of conductors Heiichiro Ohyama and Andre Previn. The works performed survey the chamber format rather comprehensively, ranging from Mozart concertos to contemporary pieces written by 35-year-old New York composer Bruce Adolphe.

“The artists say this is one of the most important chamber music venues,” said Robert Doede, one of the principal series founders. “Many say that they would rather play here than anywhere else.”

“‘We’re really moving into the big time,” added Marie Olesen, past president of the music society. “In five years, we have come to be viewed by the musicians as the best chamber music festival in the country. Opening night was fabulous, and the Schumann piece (Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Opus 44) was as good as you’ll hear.”

The 110 guests at Saturday’s gala--all concert series patrons who contributed a minimum of $1,000 per couple--were invited to hear a mid-evening program of works by Persichetti, Faure and Beethoven, offered as a musical intermezzo between a lavish champagne reception and an equally lavish dinner.

The setting lent itself to the peculiar requirements of the gala, to say the least.

The Sahm estate, over the years, has been the site of the first two “A Night in Monte Carlo” balls for the then-La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, of the annual Christmas musicale jointly sponsored by the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera, of country-Western hoedowns for the Voices for Children Auxiliary and, in the early 1980s, of the only three “throlf” tournaments known to have been given anywhere on this planet. Throlf, a pristinely wacky game that calls for golf balls to be thrown from hole to hole, was the brainchild of La Jolla’s Lawrence Waddy; the tournaments benefited the symphony.

But, for Saturday’s event, the massive house provided a soaring glass and wood music room spacious enough to accommodate the musicians and guests in comfort, one with acoustics that several musicians compared favorably to those of a good concert hall.

As flutist Carol Wincenc and harpist Deborah Hoffman settled in for the opening piece, Persichetti’s Serenade No. 10 (Opus 79), the mood in and outside the room seemed to shift with them--the crowd grew notably silent and intense, and the sky brooding behind them darkened from the dusky blue of an Indian sapphire to an imperfect onyx irradiated with flecks of stars. Just as the music took a particularly sharp turn into a flying scherzando, the mood was broken by the emphatic croaking of the many frogs the populate the ponds beside Sahm’s front walk. Closing the doors took care of the unexpected amphibian obbligato.

After the concert, which included Faure’s brief but beguiling “Morceau de Concours” and Beethoven’s String Trio in G Major (Opus 9, No. 1), perennial SummerFest sponsor Peter Preuss related the music to the surroundings.

“This is one of the few occasions upon which chamber music is played in the setting it was meant for,” he said. “The gala audience replicates the classic chamber music audience, which almost gives tonight a sense of nostalgia. Chamber music sounds best in a private home.”

Guests fortified themselves for the concert by browsing on an hors d’oeuvres buffet arranged by caterer John Baylin, who “painted” Picasso-like representations of a lute and a woman’s face in capers, chopped salmon and caviars of various colors, all applied to an edible canvas of cream cheese. One of those inspecting the display was current music society President Brenda Baker, who said that musicians now request a billet on the SummerFest program. “We’re attracting national attention to San Diego,” she said. “Artists are coming to us from everywhere.”

Baylin served in a setting of some drama, around the massive indoor pool that occupies the farthest wing of the house. Gala Chairman Peggy Preuss decorated the tables formally with extravagant bouquets of white roses clustered around silver candelabra; the meal included grilled duck breast with exotic relishes and a hot-and-cold salad of sauteed forest mushrooms and chilled greens. “The SummerFest gala is becoming a significant event for San Diego,” she said. “It’s a state of mind that calls for elegance and glamour.”

Many of the principal musicians, including pianists Emanuel and Yoko Ax and violinist Gyorgy Pauk, joined the dinner as guests; many also found themselves renewing old acquaintances, since music society board members and sponsors traditionally house the visiting artists.

SummerFest artistic director Heiichiro Ohyama and his wife, artist Gail Ohyama, headed a guest list that included festival General Chairman Lois Kohn; Sharon and Neil Derrough; Roger Revelle; Romona Sahm with Chuck LaBar; Bea and Bob Epsten; Marcia and Harvey Schuster; Beverly and Joseph Glickman; Lynn Hillegrund with Stephen Zahorik; Suzanne and John Koch.