Wednesdays at 10:00 pm
A fresh feast of early music every week.
Join host Candice Agree for WFMT’s exciting weekly program of early music. Baroque&Before explores works written before 1750, featuring live concert recordings from some of the world’s most prestigious early music festivals, as well as commercially released recordings from WFMT’s vast library. From Russia to the Americas, from Northern Europe to the Mediterranean and Middle East, Candice presents internationally known artists on the early music scene, crafting a delightful mix of musicianship, music, and history.
Cantiques pour un prince
July 25, 2018
Instrumental ensemble La Fenice and the Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis join forces for a recital that unifies the French baroque genius Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s expressive, beautiful, and sorrowful double choir mass with motets from the 1670s. Recorded live in concert June 23, as part of the Stockholm Early Music Festival, held in the German Church of the Swedish capital’s Old ...
Vivaldi’s Women
July 18, 2018
Journey into a lost sound-world: Vivaldi’s Gloria is one of the most popular of choral works, yet no-one knows for certain exactly how it sounded to the ears of its composer, written as it was for female performers of a Venetian orphanage. Tonight, the Oxford-based all-female choir Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi, which specializes in recreating that unique sound, is joined ...
Gems of the Bohemian Reformation
July 11, 2018
Vojtěch Semerád leads the Cappella Mariana Choir and Capella Ornamentata Instrumental Ensemble in sacred and secular works by Italian, Flemish, and Czech composers during the reign of Emperor Rudolph II. Recorded live in concert November 10, 2017, in Herne’s Kreuzkirche, as part of the Early Music Days Festival held in the German City of Herne.
All in a Garden Green
July 4, 2018
All in a garden green is where you’ll find us this week. WFMT has a great day of special programming scheduled for Independence Day, so we’re taking the night off. Enjoy the holiday and join us next week, July 11, at 10pm for another edition of Baroque&Before.
Bach Under the Influence
June 27, 2018
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra’s concert of Bach violin concertos inspired by Vivaldi includes concertos for one, two, and three violins, the last a reconstruction of the triple harpsichord concerto BWV 1046, believed originally to have been written for three violins. Works by Vivaldi open and close the program. Recorded live in concert at Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the Opening Concert ...
Italian Baroque Music of the Jewish Ghetto
June 20, 2018
Soprano Sherezade Panthaki joins Philharmonia Baroque Chamber Players and members of the Philharmonia Chorale, under the direction of Nicholas McGegan, for Italian baroque music of the synagogue, the theater, and the court: sacred and secular works by Salamone Rossi, Claudio Monteverdi, and Benedetto Marcello. Tonight's program was recorded live in concert April 8, 2018, in the Performance Hall of The ...
Airs de cour & à boire
June 13, 2018
Vocalist Ivo Haun de Oliveira and lutenist Michal Gondko share an evening of love songs, drinking songs, sorrow, and revelry from the late Renaissance to the early Baroque from France, England, Italy, and Poland. Recorded live in concert August 19, 2017, in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paradyż, Poland, as part of the region’s ...
Scarlatti in Spain
June 6, 2018
A program of solo and chamber music by Domenico Scarlatti (known as Domingo Escarlatti in Spain) and his Spanish contemporaries Vicente Adán and Antonio (Padre) Soler. Recorded live in concert as part of the annual Music In Paradise Festival, held during the last two weeks of August in Seminary Church, a former Cisterian monastery in the Polish town of Paradyż.
500 Years of Choral Polyphony
May 30, 2018
The first part of tonight’s program presents the vocal ensemble Exaudi under the direction of James Weeks, recorded live in concert in London’s Wigmore Hall. The second part presents Harry Christophers leading The Sixteen in four 17th-century settings of “When David Heard.” Recorded live in concert in Manchester England’s Bridgewater Hall.
More Music from Paradise: French Baroque with Ground Floor
May 23, 2018
Vocal and instrumental music of the 16th- and 17-century French Baroque, presented by Ground Floor, an early music group of 7 vocalists and instrumentalists, joined by special guest VivaBiancaLuna Biffi. Recorded live in concert as part of the annual Music In Paradise Festival, held during the last two weeks of August in Seminary Church, a former Cistercian monastery in the ...
Music in Paradise: From Chant to Chanson
May 16, 2018
Music from the 9th through 14th centuries, from Gregorian chant to songs of Guillaume de Machaut, recorded live in concert and presented at the 12th annual Music In Paradise Festival, held during the last two weeks of August in Seminary Church, a former Cistercian monastery in the Polish town historically known as Paradyż.
Jordi Savall: El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat
May 9, 2018
The Shrine of the Virgin of Montserrat was a major pilgrimage site in the 14th century. El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, or the Red Book of Montserrat, is a 14th-century collection of devotional texts and music for the pilgrims to the Catalonian Montserrat Monastery. Tonight we hear selections from the 6 music folios contained in El Llibre Vermell, presented by ...
Monteverdi Madrigals with Les Arts Florissants
May 2, 2018
Claudio Monteverdi, the master of the madrigal, was baptized May 15, 1567. This week, Baroque&Before presents a recital of Claudio Monteverdi’s voluminous seventh book of madrigals, published in 1619. Les Arts Florissants instrumental and vocal ensemble is under the direction of Paul Agnew. Founded in 1979 by William Christie, Les Arts Florissants is known internationally for its historically-informed interpretation of ...
Marais & Couperin with the Nevermind Ensemble
April 25, 2018
This week, we feature another recording made live in concert at the Music in Paradise Baroque Festival, held in Paradyż, Poland. Tonight’s recital of French baroque works by Marin Marais and François Couperin presented by the Nevermind Ensemble was recorded live in concert August 20, 2017, in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paradyż. Paradyż ...
15th century Music of Germany & Poland
April 18, 2018
On this week’s edition of Baroque&Before, Corina Marti and Roger Hélou present arrangements for recorders, clavisymbalum, and organetto of works from three fifteenth-century collections of original compositions and arrangements: The Buxheimer Orgelbuch, the Glogauer Liederbuch, and the Lochhamer Liederbuch. Recorded live in concert August 18, 2017 in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paradyż, Poland ...
Telemann in Paradise
April 11, 2018
At the age of 24, Telemann received an invitation to become Kapellmeister for the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau — now Żary — in Poland. The young composer was inspired by the melodies and the skills in improvisation of the Polish folk musicians. The music he sought out and absorbed during his brief stay in Poland ...
Les chemins hébraïques du baroque
April 4, 2018
Passionate about Hebraic spiritual traditions, Benedetto Marcello was inspired by the extraordinary faith he encountered in the synagogues of early 18th-century Venice. Selections from Marcello’s settings of poetic paraphrases of the Psalms of David with Hebraic intonations are presented by Ensemble XVIII-21 Le Baroque Nomade, founded in 1995 by Jean-Christope Frisch as XVIII-21 Musique de Lumières. A world premiere, recorded ...
Easter Gregorian Chant: Songs of the Passion & Resurrection
March 28, 2018
Founded in 1970, Scola Gregoriana of Bruges dedicates itself to the revival and renewed appreciation of Gregorian chant as one of the great masterpieces of the Church and the basis of West European musical culture. Its program was recorded live in concert at the Hermitage of San Pedro in Cicera (Cantabria) Spain.
Caldara: Morte e sepoltura di Christo
March 21, 2018
To celebrate Holy Week and Easter, a special 2-hour edition of Baroque&Before presents a work that premiered in 1724. Antonio Caldara’s oratorio Morte e sepoltura di Christo (Christ’s Death and Burial) shows the Baroque master’s remarkable ability to allow music to be inspired by text, thus creating a level of drama and empathy nearing that to be found in the ...
Ensemble Hispania: Early Baroque Motets and Cantatas
March 14, 2018
Ensemble Hispania, under the direction of Raúl Mallvibarrena, presents a recital of motets and cantatas by Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Rosenmúller, and Franz Tunder. Recorded live in concert in Madrid’s Teatro Monumental.
Hamelin, Year 1284: The Real Pied Piper?
March 7, 2018
Norbert Rodenkirchen presents a solo recital in which he attempts to reconstruct the route of the late thirteenth-century traveling flutist of legend. The Route of the Rattenfänger von Hameln is based on intensive musicological research focused on the mediaeval monodies in the minnesinger tradition of the thirteenth century and ancient Slavic music from the Baltic region. Recorded live in concert ...