François Xavier Roth & Les Siècles: marvelous interpreters of French music

I’m always on the lookout for fine recordings of French music. French composers wrote music that is highly stylized so the way it is performed is of great -if not the greatest- importance.

In regards to the French masterpieces, I grew up basically with the excellent recordings that Pierre Boulez made with the Cleveland and the Chicago Symphony Orchestras. Later, I discovered the competent albums made by Charles Dutoit with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and also by Ernest Ansermet and his Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

More recently, after reading a couple of biographies of Ravel and Poulenc, I decided to do some research on some of the great modern recordings of French music. Everything seemed to be pointing to the albums made by François Xavier Roth & Les Siècles. I decided to give it a listen and I have to say I was hugely impressed.

François Xavier Roth is a French conductor who began his career in music as a flutist. He later decided to study conducting and worked as the Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, his first prominent role leading an orchestra, which led to his recent appointment as his new principal guest conductor. In the meantime, he also worked as an assistant conductor to John Eliot Gardiner, a term that may have influenced his next and most remarkable move. 

In 2003, he founded an ensemble called Les Siècles, which embodies a rare quality in classical music: it plays works on the instruments of the era in which they were written, comprising periods like Baroque, Classical and stretching well into the first third of the twentieth century.

My first encounter with Les Siècles was its breathtaking recording of Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin. After that I basically devoured every piece Roth has recorded by my favorite composer -La valse, Ma mère L’Oye and Daphnis et Chloe. I was not disappointed by either one of them. The finesse, elegance and balance one can encounter in each and every one of these performances is deeply pleasing.

After ending up delighted by these readings, my next step was to delve into Les Siècles’ Debussy. Even when I love Ravel immensely I have to admit that Roth’s proficiency at conducting French music is fully developed and shown with Debussy’s pieces. His expertise lies on the details. The clarity that one can hear every single instrument gives the whole music a certain pristine aura and one could almost claim that this is exactly how this French genius wanted his music to be played.

Another French giant that Roth & Les Siècles have decided to undertake is Berlioz. They have recorded works like Harold en Italie, Les Nuits d'été and Symphonie Fantastique. Even when the conductor and his ensemble also excel at these pieces (especially the latter), I feel that their strengths thrive in more subtle compositions like Ravel and Debussy’s.

Poulenc’s Requiem is another gem that Roth & Les Siècles have given us. Another proof that French music can bring us a special type of beauty that excels not in the grandeur but rather in the middle, in those nuances that you can only get with extreme attention and an impeccable orchestra led by a remarkable conductor like this one.

Give yourself a treat and listen to this fascinating music. It will leave you with an experience of beauty like no other -the mere definition of extraordinary.