François-Xavier Roth has been one of our Principal Guest Conductors since 2017. He first collaborated with the Orchestra when he won the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition in 2000, and has conducted the LSO every year since.
He is a champion of new music, and has been a key figure in the LSOs Panufnik Composers Scheme for over ten years, conducting the annual Composers Workshops at LSO St Luke’s and LSO Futures concerts at the Barbican.
Roth is also the founder and Artistic Director of the period-instrument orchestra Les Siècles, Music Director of the City of Cologne, and Artistic Director of l’Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing.
Videos
News & Stories
![François-Xavier Roth conducting the LSO at the Barbican François-Xavier Roth conducting the LSO at the Barbican](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2023/03/15_4-June_Ode-to-Joy_Mark-Allan_resized.jpg?resize=30%2C10&gravity)
François-Xavier Roth on the 2023/24 Season
‘As a conductor, I always want to have contact with new music. Reading and studying a new score is like musical fitness – it’s stimulating for my eyes, for my brain, and for my music-making, and it affects my reading of the older music.’
Concerts
![2023-Half-Six-Fix-Noseda-©-Tom-Lovatt The LSO cellos and double basses playing on the Barbican stage, with screens at the sides showing the performers.](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2024/04/2023-Half-Six-Fix-Noseda--Tom-Lovatt.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Half Six Fix: Beethoven
François-Xavier Roth
Wednesday 30 October 2024 • 6.30pm
François-Xavier Roth introduces and conducts the LSO in Beethoven's Symphony No 1 in this 60-minute Half Six Fix concert.
![Violinist Isabelle Faust Violinist Isabelle Faust](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2023/03/48_23-Nov_Bartok-Janacek-Debussy-Felix-Broede_1.1-Kopie_resized.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Adámek and Beethoven
François-Xavier Roth and Isabelle Faust
Thursday 31 October 2024 • 7pm
Hear early Beethoven in a playful mood, plus Ondřej Adámek's concerto featuring violinist Isabelle Faust, conducted by François-Xavier Roth.
![Orchestra performing at Half Six Fix, focus on horns and wind The London Symphony Orchestra performing on the Barbican Hall stage.](https://images.lso.co.uk/uploads/2024/04/231206-Half-Six-Fix-Tchaik-6-low-res.-Credit_Tom-Lovatt-22-scaled.jpg?resize=16%2C10&gravity)
Half Six Fix: Lachenmann and Beethoven 7
François-Xavier Roth
Wednesday 27 November 2024 • 6.30pm
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
Recordings
Reviews
‘Roth was very much in his element, meanwhile, in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony … – an interpretation of great integrity and subtlety, swift without ever once seeming hectored, the overriding sense of wonder at the beauties of nature deeply felt yet understated, and attaining genuine sublimity.’ ★★★★ The Guardian, May 2023
‘Roth’s ear for orchestral colour suggested, in that well-worn cliché, a sensitive restoration of an old master painting.’ Seen and Heard International, Feb 2023
‘Under the energetic direction of François-Xavier Roth, it turned out to be a most generous and stimulating evening.’ ★★★★★ Bachtrack, Mar 2018