The Santa Barbara Symphony opened its 2011-12 season over the weekend in The Granada Theatre with a concert of lyrical beauty, led by conductor Nir Kabaretti.

Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique was the major offering, along with the poignant Cello Concerto in E Minor, Opus 85 by Sir Edward Elgar. Masterful cellist Lynn Harrell was the soloist for the Elgar piece.

These are disparate works, but both deal either directly or indirectly with loss.

Symphonie Fantastique was written in 1830 when Berlioz was all of 27 years old, known for his idiosyncratic music, and head over heels in love with an actress who, at that time, didn’t know he existed. Berlioz channeled his unrequited love into the wildly unconventional Symphonie Fantastique, which he subtitled “Episode from the Life of an Artist.” (It should be noted that three years after the debut of Symphonie, Berlioz married the object of his affection, English actress Harriet Smithson.)

Thank Heaven for ardent young composers, especially French ones such as Berlioz, with his eccentric musical voice.

In the Sunday matinee performance, Kabaretti seemed as energized as the orchestra members, swirling through the five movements of the piece. The work concludes with a “March to the Scaffold,” in which the young artist is led off to the guillotine, and a “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath.” Not the usual fare for a concert in Paris in 1830.

The Elgar concerto dominated the first half of the program, with Harrell in his best form. He plays a 1720 Montegnana cello, and gave a rich reading of Elgar’s late-life masterpiece. The program notes by Dr. Richard Rodda noted that Elgar was in his 70s when he composed the poignant work in the years 1917-18, at the close of World War I. Elgar, like his British compatriots and colleagues in Europe, was exhausted, mourning the toll taken by what was then called The Great War.

The program, which was also given Saturday evening, opened with Tromba Lontana (“Fanfare for Orchestra”), a four-minute exercise in minimalism by American composer John Adams.

— Margo Kline covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk or @NoozhawkNews.