Like most teenagers, François-Xavier Roth was a dreamer. But while others formed bands in their garages and fantasised about becoming the next big thing, Roth was reading Nikolaus Harnoncourt and imagining something quite different. ‘I was always fascinated by music from different periods,’ he says, ‘but if I wanted an orchestra that could perform them all, I needed to visit several ensembles.’
Might it be possible, he wondered, to create an ensemble that could play Bach on Baroque instruments and Berio on their modern equivalents – and all in the same concert? ‘This was the idea, a chameleon-like orchestra with this curiosity for period instruments, but not from just one period, from across a very, very long time.’ And so, in 2003, Les Siècles was born.
We’re chatting in Roth’s dressing room at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the very venue that 110 years ago hosted the Ballets Russes and witnessed the riotous premiere It’s particularly appropriate, as Les Siècles is in
