Playing Musical Chairs : Weather Forces Recital, Celebration of Album Taping Indoors

The amphitheater will have to wait.

A promise of foul weather delayed the christening of Pacific Symphony philanthropist Mark Johnson’s 300-seat amphitheater on Friday night.

The proposed party plan for 80 guests: a buffet supper and piano recital by French Canadian pianist Alain Lefevre played out al fresco on Johnson’s sprawling grounds.

Instead, patrons of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra heard Lefevre play Chopin’s Grand Polonaise (and then, “My Funny Valentine”) next to a dancing fire in the commodious living room of Johnson’s new 8,000-square-foot Santa Ana mansion.

“I would have preferred the recital in the amphitheater--it would have been so dramatic,” said Johnson, who welcomed guests with aspiring actress Sandra Cameron, stunning in a lipstick-red Chanel, on his arm.

“Someday,” Johnson said, looking out a window, “I hope to have Michael Crawford sing in my amphitheater. Can’t you just see him performing selections from ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ out there?” (Indeed. The amphitheater, which is carved into a gentle green slope, is topped with a fountain, divided by a gushing stream and surrounded by sky-scraping trees studded with twinkle-lights.)

Meanwhile, guests who’d come to celebrate the symphony’s recording that day of American composer John Corigliano’s Piano Concerto--played by Lefevre--kept busy congratulating conductor Carl St.Clair on his first recording with the orchestra.

St.Clair was ecstatic. “It’s music’s gift to feel this exhilarated after a performance,” he said.

Said Michael Fine, vice president of Koch International (the recording company for the orchestra’s new CD): “This concerto is one of the most important of the century and one of the most difficult--a killer. It is an extremely brave and worthy accomplishment for the orchestra to have recorded it.”

“It was so pure,” said Sharon Jaquith, one of a handful of symphony supporters invited to attend the recording session in Segerstrom Hall. “Michael Fine says it will probably win a Grammy Award.”

Only one problem with the recording, Fine noted. “We had a light bulb explode on the downbeat,” he said. “There was glass all over the floor. It didn’t hurt anybody, but there was some tension.”

Johnson, who donated $50,000 to the symphony to help defray recording costs of about $100,000, said it was eerie to sit in Segerstrom Hall with only a few people. “There we were, in the back of the orchestra, all by ourselves,” he said. “So quiet. So dark.”

Lefevre was happy to be at the party. “Are you ready for some wild people in your house?” he asked Johnson. “I am very happy that the recording is finished. It was a very big job, one of the most difficult concertos I have ever practiced. It took me 14 months to prepare for it.”

Lefevre, 31, attended the bash with his wife of 11 years, Johanne Martineau, a lawyer. “We met in Montreal--lived near each other. One day, she listened to me working and we met each other. Ours is one of those big love stories,” he said.

When guests weren’t schmoozing, they were feasting on a buffet of filet mignon, gravlax marinated in tequila and scampi or diving into an array of mini desserts that included chocolate cheesecake, fruit tarts and almond pralines dipped in white chocolate.

Among guests were Lefevre’s agent Lily Sarfati, who came from Paris. “Alain is a big talent,” she said. “He will go very far and very quickly.”

Observed Louis Spisto, the orchestra’s executive director: “This recording is a landmark event for the orchestra, a very challenging tour de force that most orchestras would never attempt for a first recording with a new music director. It’s all about our becoming internationally recognized. That’s our goal.” The CD will be released in June.

Also among guests: Frank Ticheli of Pasadena, the orchestra’s composer-in-residence (whose compositions, “Postcard” and “Radiant Voices” will also be featured on the CD. “Forget the romanticized version of how a composer composes,” he said during the cocktail reception, “it’s all about sitting down at the desk . . . long, grueling, often lonely, painful work.”); Tom and Anne Key; Arlene and George Cheng; Paula Lingelbach; Mickey Shaw; Maralou and Jerry Harrington; Zee Allred; Richard and Jolene Engel; Peter and Mary Muth; and Ron and Joyce Hanson.