There are symphony orchestras and there are period instrument bands, and then there is Les Siècles. Founded in 2003, François-Xavier Roth’s crack French ensemble pulls off the remarkable feat of finessing a dizzying array of music on instruments specific to the time of composition. What’s more, they do it all in the same concert. As a London Symphony Orchestra principal guest conductor, Roth is no stranger to these shores, but this was the first time he’s brought his Paris-based outfit to the Barbican, an event well worth the waiting for.
The programme spanned 80 years of French music: from 1841 and Berlioz’s frothy take on Weber’s Invitation to the Dance to Lili Boulanger’s death-haunted D’un soir triste. The latter was written in 1918, the year she died at the age of 24. Tonal contrasts throughout were revelatory. The diaphanous textures of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune responded instinctively to the gut strings and mellow early-1900s horns. The sound was warm, though never amorphous, in a performance shot through with airiness and light. By contrast, the Berlioz was rich and hefty, an intoxicating waltz fed by a raw, earthy energy. The change to natural horns here lent the music a brazen theatricality.
But Roth is more than a one-trick, period-instrument pony. His vibrant interpretations are radical, crafted by expressive, fluttering hand movements and backed up by eloquent body language. In the Berlioz, he practically pirouetted on the podium to get the feel he was after.
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If he brought out the brutal, uncompromising side of the Boulanger with its funereal drums and ticking celesta, his reading of Daphnis et Chloé was teeming with light and shade. Les Siècles offered a superb interpretation, bolstered by the London Symphony Chorus’s wordless vocals. From the eerie strings and deep magic of the invocation to Pan, to the languorous streams and birdsong accompanying Ravel’s ear-ravishing sunrise, this was exceptional music-making. The seething bacchanale, with castanets a-go-go, brought matters to a sensual, full-throated conclusion. The encore, a shimmying mashup of Ravel with Quincy Jones’s Soul Bossa Nova, was the icing on the gateau.
