Les Siècles is a symphony orchestra founded in 2003 by François-Xavier Roth. The orchestra became famous for performances on instruments from the time of the music itself. Roth found a kindred spirit in violinist Isabelle Faust. She also experimented with authentic French instruments on her earlier CD with
Stravinsky's Histoire du Soldat [aex3041]. Roth and Faust have now joined forces for this
… Stravinsky CD. With the most entertaining work being the Violin Concerto in D, which belongs to Stravinsky's neoclassical period. But there are also pieces from other periods, in which the master expressed himself much more succinctly. Russian-folkloristic was Stravinsky in the Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914, 1918). The first piece is set off boisterously, as if sounding a hurdy-gurdy. The third piece is typically one of those chorales of dry vacuum cleaner sounds that Stravinsky patented. The 1959 Double Canon is another such modernist miniature, but from Stravinsky's late serial period. (HJ)more
