François-Xavier Roth Essentials

Inspired by his organist father and violinist brother, Francois-Xavier Roth started out on the flute and held his first professional conducting post at the comparatively young age of 29. That first stint at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra started in 2000, and he would go on to such stellar engagements as Les Siècles and BBC NOW. The Frenchman's readings of Ravel (Ma mère l'Oye) and Bizet (Symphonie et Ut Majeur) with the former are lively, engaging, articulate affairs; his Mahler 5 with Gürzenich-Orchester Köln comes across as reserved, yet deeply spiritual. And in his Bartok recordings, Roth captures a lost modernist style.