La Jolla Music Society (LJMS) has reasons to rejoice. The first and last concerts in SummerFest 2009’s spectacular lineup  (July 31-Aug. 23) are sold out. Though it appeared the free concert at Scripps Park would not be offered this year due to financial constraints, it will indeed take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13, thanks to the diligence of a 90-something dynamo Helene Kruger, who singlehandedly raised funding to defray costs of the free concert. There’s more: LJMS president and artistic director Christopher Beach expects to end the fiscal year in the black. That’s especially gratifying when one considers that SummerFest completes the organization’s 40th anniversary year. Speaking of SummerFests past as well as this edition’s programming, Beach said, “Every year I think, ‘How can we top that?’ Maybe it’s just the blind affection of a proud papa, but I think this year’s festival is exciting from opening night to finale.” SummerFest 2009 makes even the most jaded concertgoer salivate. The pianists have it all season, but especially so on opening night. Those who have opening and closing night tickets feel like trifecta winners at Del Mar. The opening-night piano extravaganza features pianists Helen Huang, Anne-Marie McDermott, Jon Kimura Parker and Orion Weiss in a program of literature for two pianos, piano four hands, and two piano, eight hands that includes music by George Gershwin, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Richard Wagner, Camille Saint-Saens, Gioacchino Rossini and Georges Bizet that promises to knock listeners’ ears off. In his ninth season of artistic leadership, SummerFest music director Cho-Liang Lin said that he recently discovered many two-piano, eight-hands arrangements and decided to begin the annual chamber festival in “ultra-festive style.” He hastened to add that he selected pianists he knew would get along well with one another — two young, two seasoned — and have fun playing this unique program of his and Beach’s devising. McDermott, Parker and Lin have been friends since student days in New York City, Lin and Parker at the Juilliard School and McDermott at Manhattan School of Music. Shifting gears, the Calder Quartet and a 14-piece SummerFest Chamber Orchestra conducted by Heiichiro Ohyama present music by Ernest Chausson, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Dmitri Shostakovich Saturday, Aug. 1. Other SummerFest pianists include Andreas Haefliger, who plays an “Evening with…” recital Wednesday, Aug. 12. He performs Johannes Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 101, with violinist Lin and cellist Fred Sherry; the Wagner-Liszt “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde,” S. 447; and is joined by the acclaimed actor Michael York, who will narrate Richard Strauss’ “Enoch Arden” Op. 38. When Beach ticked off his favorite programs, this was first on his list. “The poem is by Alfred Lord Tennyson,” he said, “whose 200th birthday is just a couple days before our concert. The poem, a dramatic melodrama, was so popular in Europe and America that Strauss was inspired to write a piece for piano and narrator.” Lin wanted to honor “extraordinary artist” Menahem Pressler, pianist and founding member of the recently retired Beaux Arts Trio, who will play an “Evening with…” recital Wednesday, Aug. 5. He is joined by Weiss in performance of Mozart’s Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos, K. 448, and by violinists Lin and Margaret Batjer, violist Heiichiro Ohyama, and cellist Carter Brey in performance of Antonin Dvorak’s Quintet in A Major for Piano and Strings, Op. 81. Pressler plays Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110. The third “An Evening with…” concert features fiddler/composer Mark O’Connor in a program of his own works, assisted by violinist Yoon Kwon, cellists Felix Fan and Charles Curtis and pianist Joyce Yang. The program includes O’Connor’s beloved “Appalachia Waltz.” This season’s mini-festival within SummerFest (Tuesdays, Aug. 4, 11 and 18) features works by Felix Mendelssohn, whose 200th birthday anniversary is also observed this year. Other programs include 20th Century Romantic Composers, Saturday, Aug. 8, and (Nearly) Forgotten Masterpieces Sunday, Aug. 9 and SummerFest Commissions, Friday, Aug. 21. The SummerFest Finale, Sunday, Aug. 23, celebrates Baroque masters with conductor Anthony Newman and the 25-member SummerFest Chamber Orchestra. Resident ensembles include the Calder and Miro quartets, Real Quiet, and red fish blue fish. SummerFest is rife with such familiar, free and beloved programs as Encounters, open rehearsals and coaching workshops. All concerts take place at Sherwood Auditorium, 700 Prospect St., except for the free concert at Scripps Park. For a complete schedule consult www.ljms.org or call (858) 459-3728.