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.
Listen to the past two weeks of Baroque&Before.
Dueling Viols: Vivaldi, Gregori, Dall’Abaco & Brescianello
December 8, 2021
Along with being known as a composer, which is how we know Antonio Vivaldi today, the great Italian Baroque master was a renowned violin virtuoso as well; no further evidence is needed than the famous violin concertos The Four Seasons. When Vivaldi composed for several instruments, it becomes clear that there were others in his time who could also find ...
Les chemins hébraïques du baroque
December 1, 2021
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 ...
A Mass against the Black Death: Benevoli’s Missa in angustia pestilentiae
November 24, 2021
In the autumn of 1656, the Plague epidemic claimed one million lives in Italy. To combat the anguish of the soul caused by the Black Death, Orazio Benevoli composed the Missa “In angustia pestilentiae.” First performed on November 18, 1656, at the height of the plague, we hear it on this edition of Baroque&Before, along with works by Antonio Lotti ...
Corund Ensemble & Tomás Luis de Victoria
November 17, 2021
Known as the “Spanish Palestrina,” Tomás Luis de Victoria has been called the greatest of all Iberian composers. Corund, the Swiss vocal ensemble founded in Lucerne in 1993 and specializing in sacred music of the Renaissance and Baroque, presents a concert of sacred works by Tomás Luis. The Requiem Mass, composed for the funeral of the Empress Maria, is the ...
Slavonic Baroque with Collegium 1704
November 10, 2021
Václav Luks leads Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 in Baroque works by Slavic composers: Poland’s Marcin Mielczewski and Bartłomiej Pękiel, and Bohemia’s Jan Dismas Zelenka. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert August 24, 2021, in the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, as part of the 17th international music festival titled Chopin and Europe. We won’t hear works by Chopin ...
Three Austrian Musketeers: Aufschnaiter, Muffat & Mayr
November 3, 2021
Austrian music of the baroque era was strongly influenced by the contemporary music of Italy, France, Spain, and Hungary, as well as the Slavic lands. On this edition of Baroque&Before, you’ll hear those influences in distinctly Austrian works by Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter, Georg Muffat, and Rupert Ignaz Mayr, performed by the period instrument ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria. Tonight’s program was ...
Tiburtina Ensemble & the Jistebnice Hymn Book
October 27, 2021
The Tiburtina Ensemble presents sacred songs from The Jistebnice Hymn Book. Dating from the early 15th century, it’s the largest surviving compendium and the most important source of Hussite liturgy and singing in the Czech lands, containing Czech translations of Latin liturgy, religious hymns, songs to be sung at vespers, and Czech folk Christmas carols. Tonight’s program was recorded live ...
Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers with Apollo’s Fire
October 20, 2021
Jeannette Sorrell, founder and director of Apollo’s Fire, describes Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers as “daringly avant-garde: music that uses the tools of the Renaissance and stretches them to convey the flamboyant, emotional imagery of the early Baroque.” On this edition of Baroque&Before, we hear Apollo’s Fire, Apollo’s Singers and soloists in this revolutionary and thrilling musical integration of biblical and liturgical ...
The World of Ramon Llull
October 13, 2021
Ramon Llull (1232-1316) was one of the most prominent writers and poets of medieval Catalonia, living at a time marked by the coexistence, not always peacefully, of the three Abrahamic religious cultures of his time. Jordi Savall leads La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hespèrion XXI, and special guest artists in Ramon Llull: Times of Conquest, Dialogue, and Exhortation; a program ...
Jordi Savall: El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat
October 6, 2021
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 pilgrims making their way to the Catalonian Montserrat Monastery. Tonight we hear selections from the 6 music folios contained in El Llibre Vermell, ...
A Frescobaldi Musical Flower
September 29, 2021
A child prodigy born into a wealthy Ferraresi family, Girolamo Frescobaldi published his Fiori musicali in 1635. Close to 60 years old, these musical flowers are his only compositions devoted to church music. The flower we’ll hear tonight is the Missa della Madonna, the last of the three masses comprising Fiori musicali. The eight male voices of the Canticum ensemble, ...
Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Jordi Savall
September 22, 2021
Jordi Savall leads Le Concert des Nations, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, and soloists in Monteverdi’s five-act musical retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, the Classical myth of patience, faith, and enduring love. Featuring mezzo Luciana Mancini, baritone Marc Mauillon, contralto Sara Mingardo, and bass Silvio Vitale, tonight’s presentation was recorded live in concert June 4, 2021, at ...
Sacred Bridges: Psalms of David
September 15, 2021
Tonight’s program, titled “Sacred Bridges,” celebrates the rich connections between Orient and Occident, creating a musical exploration of the complex intertwinings – the sacred bridges – between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, as seen through settings of the timeless Psalms of David. Bringing this music to life is the multicultural ensemble Sarband. Though based in Germany, Sarband’s musicians hail from a ...
O, Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths with Apollo’s Fire
September 8, 2021
13th-century Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi described Jerusalem as “the place where everything is music … and brothers and strangers are one.” Apollo’s Fire, under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell, presents an exploration of the four quarters of Old Jerusalem (Jewish, Christian, Arab, and Armenian/Byzantine,) and the cross-cultural influences of the city’s inhabitants. The rhythms of daily life — love, ...
Voces Suaves & Cafebaum Banda Barocca
September 1, 2021
Tonight’s program takes us to Schaffhausen’s Kirche St. Johann for a program of Janitsch, Johannes Bach, and Johann Sebastian Bach, presented by two young ensembles based in Basel: Cafebaum Banda Barocca and vocal ensemble Voces Suaves. Recorded live in concert May 12, 2018 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland’s Bach Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’ll be able ...
Profeti della Quinta: Salamone Rossi & Claudio Monteverdi
August 25, 2021
Profeti della Quinta presents psalm settings by Claudio Monteverdi and Salamone Rossi, both employed at Mantua’s Gonzaga court. The Israeli ensemble, directed by Elam Rotem, focuses on the vocal repertoire of the late Renaissance, specializing in Hebrew vocal music. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert June 25, 2021, as part of the Thuringia Bach Festival, whose theme for the ...
Cantatio presents “Alexander’s Feast”
August 18, 2021
On this edition of Baroque&Before, Ensemble Cantatio presents an ode with a libretto in English written by the German composer who, in addition to his English oratorios, was known for his Italian operas. Tonight, Handel’s ode to Saint Cecilia, Alexander’s Feast, with Ensemble Cantatio, directed by its founder John Duxbury. Tonight’s music was recorded live in concert October 27, 2020 ...
Pallas Nordica: Music for Queen Christina
August 11, 2021
Queen Christina I of Sweden (1626-1689,) one of the most educated women of the Baroque era, gave up her royal throne at the age of 28. Known as “Pallas Nordica”, the Athena or Minerva of the North, she left her native Sweden and travelled across Europe to Rome. She corresponded with and supported Europe’s leading contemporary artists and thinkers, including ...
Napoli illustrissima
August 4, 2021
On this edition of Baroque&Before, historically-informed violinist Eva Saladin, baroque cellist Daniel Rosin, and harpsichordist Johannes Keller present works by composers who lived or worked in Naples in the 18th century: Mascitti, Matteis, Cailò, Scarlatti, Lonati, and Piani. Tonight’s program was recorded on January 20, 2021 in Basel’s Stadtcasino, as part of the Basel Early Music Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s ...
Bach’s Mass in B Minor
July 28, 2021
Although written in the last years of his life, Bach’s Mass in B Minor had its beginnings some 15 years earlier. Never performed during Bach’s lifetime, the Mass in B Minor is rightly revered as one of mankind’s greatest musical and spiritual achievements. On this edition of Baroque&Before, Ivor Bolton leads Balthasar Neumann Chorus and B’Rock Orchestra in Bach’s masterwork. ...
Baroque delights – Maurice Steger & La Cetra Basel
July 21, 2021
Recorder virtuoso Maurice Steger and La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel were among the guest artists at the Engadin Festival, held since 1941 in & around St Moritz in Switzerland. The program is titled Baroque Delights, and that’s exactly what we’ll hear. Tonight’s program was recorded August 6, 2020, in the Reithalle, St. Moritz, as part of the Engadin Festival’s “Concerts ...
