O.C. Snags Vienna in Major Coup : Music: A 2-year effort by the Philharmonic Society will bring the renowned orchestra for two Costa Mesa dates in ’97. Carnegie Hall is its only other U.S. stop.

The Vienna Philharmonic, one of the world’s top orchestras, will make exclusive West Coast appearances on the Philharmonic Society of Orange County’s 1996-97 season.

The Austrian orchestra, which has not played in Southern California since 1987, will play different programs on March 4 and 5, 1997, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. Daniel Barenboim, music director of the Chicago Symphony and the Berlin Opera, will conduct.

“This has been the dream of the Philharmonic Society ever since we started presenting orchestras,” said executive director Dean Corey.

“It’s taken about two years to do it. This was not offered to us at all. They’re not making a tour. We worked very hard to persuade them and their management in New York.”

The orchestra goes to New York “once every year and sets the [orchestral] standards for the East Coast,” Corey added. “We wanted to establish the same type of situation they have in New York here.”

The Costa Mesa concerts will precede the orchestra’s only other scheduled U.S. appearances, in Carnegie Hall in New York, by about a week.

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Costs of concerts will be underwritten by the society’s Esterhazy support group. Corey said that the budget for the new season will top $3 million. The remainder of the season has yet to be announced.

The Vienna Philharmonic was last here in 1987 when it played two concerts at Hollywood Bowl under Leonard Bernstein. The Vienna Chamber Ensemble, consisting of nine members of the orchestra, appeared at the Performing Arts Center in 1989 under the auspices of the Philharmonic Society.

The Vienna Philharmonic concerts will be available as part of regular subscription series, for which tickets go on sale in early March. (714) 553-2422.