GOINGS ON : Philharmonic, World Masters Lead Gala Displays of Artistry : With so many sparkling offerings, finding time to see and hear it all presents a delicious dilemma.

First, a couple of musical notes.

Essa-Pekka Salonen and his Los Angeles Philharmonic will open the Community Arts Music Assn.’s 75th season Saturday at the Arlington Theater. The program will include Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major and David Soley’s “Relieves.”

CAMA presents classical concerts performed by groups from throughout the world. The balance of the season will include appearances by the American Youth Symphony, the Dresden Philharmonie, the State Symphony of Russia, L’Orchestre National de France, I Solisti de Zagreb and a return engagement by the L. A. Philharmonic.

Single concert tickets are $19, $25, $37 and $49. Call 966-4324. The Arlington is located at 1317 State St.

Some of the top classical musicians in the area will join forces Sunday for an evening of chamber music at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall. This presentation of “Musical Gifts” is a collaboration of the university and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra.

Performers include violinist Sheryl Staples, the Chamber Orchestra concertmaster; and Cecilia Tsan, principal cellist with the Japan America Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles. The pair will perform Kodaly’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7.

Harpist Marcia Dickstein, violist Keith Greene and flutist Angela Wiegand, a.k.a. the Debussy Trio, will perform a work by their composer namesake. Canadian pianist Bernadene Blaha, a first-prize winner at the 11th Annual International Piano Competition in New York, and Chamber Orchestra Musical Director Heiichiro Ohyama, will be on stage for Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25.

The concert will begin at 7 p.m. General admission is $18, $15, and $12. Call 893-2525.

*

No need for an Andromeda eye strain. The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History will have its largest telescopes trained at the galaxy for a special observation program Friday at 8 p.m. Admission is $1. The museum is located at 2559 Puesta del Sol Road. Call 682-3224.

*

Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal, a former minister of culture for the Sandinista government, will read from his new collection of work “Cosmic Canticle” Tuesday at UCSB’s Campbell Hall.

Cardenal, an ordained priest, was exiled in 1977 while supporting the Sandinista National Liberation Front. Following the reading (in Spanish, with English translation), he will discuss the current political conditions in his homeland. General admission is $5. Call 893-3535.

*

At the turn of the century, Paris was the center of the art world, with French artists utilizing the latest lithographic techniques to illustrate, in vivid colors, their interpretations of Parisian life.

Some of that print work--in the form of posters, menus, theater programs and periodicals--is on display at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Graphics and Photography Gallery. The “L’Esprit du Temps” exhibit concentrates on Parisian women and life at the Cabaret of the Chat Noir, an artists’ place in bohemian Montemartre.

In conjunction with the museum’s French print show, there will be an exhibit of paintings by some of the great French artists of the 18th and 19th centuries--Degas, Monet and van Gogh among them. The collection is on loan through Jan. 3, 1994, from San Francisco’s California Palace of the Legion of Honor, which is closed for remodeling.

The Museum of Art is located at 1130 State St. Hours are Tuesdays to Saturdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays noon to 5 p.m. Call 963-4364.