Soubre: Sinfonie fantastique à grand orchestre

The Sinfonie fantastique à grand orchestre was composed between 1833 and 1836 as the first major effort of the Belgian composer Etienne-Joseph Soubre (1813–71). It was a work praised by Liszt, Ferdinand Ries, and Cherubini, and inspired by Berlioz. Soubre’s symphony is musically interesting as well as historically significant, at once a response to the original Fantastique (1830) and a window onto Soubre’s early style. Among other things, it suggests that Berlioz’s influence spread further and more quickly than is often assumed, providing an important template for orchestral experimentation and artistic self-construction. Soubre’s tale of dream and delirium, rich instrumentation, and idée fixe are echoes as well as reworkings of the first Fantastique, opening up a new context in which to hear both his own work and that of Berlioz.