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François-Xavier Roth

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

François-Xavier Roth is a French conductor, born on 6 November 1971. He is the son of the organist Daniel Roth and began as a flautist himself. At the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris he studied flute with Alain Marion and conducting with János Fürst. In 2000 he won the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, after which he was assistant to the London Symphony Orchestra for two years. He also worked as an assistant to John Eliot Gardiner.

Music and breakthrough

In 2003 Roth founded the orchestra Les Siècles. This ensemble plays each piece on instruments from the period in which it was written, from the late Baroque and the Classical period to the twentieth century. In this way Ravel sounds on instruments of Ravel's own kind. For the hundredth anniversary of Le Sacre du printemps in 2013 the orchestra performed the work on period instruments at the BBC Proms and at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. The recording of Le Sacre du printemps and Petrouchka was released in 2014. Also released were Symphonie fantastique, La mer and Daphnis et Chloé, among others, and a series of the tone poems of Richard Strauss. For French television he made the series Presto! with Les Siècles.

Influence

Roth led the orchestras of Baden-Baden and Freiburg, among others, and from 2015 to 2025 was Generalmusikdirektor of Cologne. Since 2017 he has been principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. His significance lies in historically informed performance of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, a field in which that approach was long less common than in Baroque music.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to an excerpt from Le Sacre du printemps by Les Siècles and notice the sound of the woodwinds and the brass. On instruments from 1913 they sound rougher and more colourful than in a modern performance.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists