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.
Profile: Harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper
August 5, 2026, 10:00 pm
Honoring the late keyboardist Kenneth Cooper, best known for his improvisational skills, his spontaneity, and his rediscovery of 18th-century works, as well as performances of modern works written for the harpsichord.
Profile: Mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza
August 12, 2026, 10:00 pm
We celebrate the artistic legacy of Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, who died May 13, 2022 at the age of 89.
Apollo’s Fire & Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610
July 29, 2026
Jeannette Sorrell, founder and director of Apollo's Fire, describes Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers as "daringly avant-garde...”
Napoli illustrissima
July 22, 2026
Violinist Eva Saladin, cellist Daniel Rosin, and harpsichordist Johannes Keller present works by composers who lived or worked in Naples in the 18th century.
Sonate italiane
July 15, 2026
Violinist Fabio Biondi leads Europa Galante in Italian sonatas by Corelli, Vivaldi, Geminiani, Tartini, Veracini and Locatelli. Recorded live in concert July 22, 2023, in the extraordinary acoustics of Świdnica, Poland’s Church of Peace, the world’s largest wooden Baroque church and a Unesco World heritage site, as part of the International Bach Festival, founded in 2005 and held each year ...
A Portuguese Pilgrimage
July 8, 2026
On this week’s edition of Baroque&Before, Giulio Prandi leads the Ghislieri Chorus, Orchestra, and soloists in Mattutino de’ Morti by Davide Perez, born in Naples of Spanish heritage. The work, written when he was mestre de capela at the court of José I, is considered the most significant musical work of 18th century Portugal. Selections from Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki’s Conductus ...
El Gran Teatro Del Mundo: The Lullists; German Baroque Music à la française
July 1, 2026
A program of “goût réuni,” or united taste, brings us the music of German composers inspired and influenced by the French style. Known as “Lullists” after Jean-Baptiste Lully, works Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, Georg Muffat, and Georg Philipp Telemann are featured this week, presented by El Gran Teatro Del Mundo under the direction of Julio Caballero Pérez. Tonight’s program was ...
The Tallis Scholars in Tokyo
June 24, 2026
As part of its fiftieth anniversary world tour, The Tallis Scholars under the direction of Peter Phillips brought to Japan sacred works by Renaissance masters Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Cristóbal de Morales, Gregorio Allegri, Costanzo Festa, Elzéar Genet Carpentras, and Josquin des Prez. Recorded live in concert July 5, 2024 in Tokyo’s Opera City Concert Hall. Thanks to WFMT’s association ...
Guillaume de Machaut: Le Remède de Fortune
June 17, 2026
Marc Mauillon and friends Maud Haering, Angélique Mauillon, Nolwenn Le Guern, and Pierre Hamon bring us the romance Le Remède de Fortune, a “dit,” or narrative poem with music by Guillame de Machaut, fourteenth-century Europe’s greatest poet, composer and exemplar of the ars nova musical style. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert May 17, 2025 in Sion’s Valère Basilica ...
Bach: The Brandenburg Concertos
June 10, 2026
The title is French and sums it up: “Six Concerts avec plusieurs instruments,” as Bach himself called his famous concerto collection. The Swiss recorder player and conductor Maurice Steger and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra present all six, known today as the Brandenburg Concertos. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert March 27, 2025, in Broadcasting Hall in the Dornbusch in ...
Bernardo Pasquini & The Martyrdom of Saint Vitus
June 3, 2026
The legend of Saint Vitus, with a cruel Roman emperor, exorcism, miracles, and martyrdom in the Colosseum, was not enough drama for 17th-century Roman nobility; it needed a love story too!
Bernardo Pasquini’s Oratorio “Sant’Agnese”
May 27, 2026
Bernardo Pasquini’s oratorio Sant’Agnese, recounts the martyrdom in the year 304 of a young Roman girl, the patron saint of chastity. The oratorio and the martyrdom of Agnes of Rome, the patroness of virginal purity, was composed in 1677 to a libretto by Cardinal Benedetto Pamphili. After its performances in Rome, it was intended to be heard at the imperial ...
Corund Ensemble & Tomás Luis de Victoria
May 20, 2026
Known as the “Spanish Palestrina,” Tomás Luis de Victoria has been called the greatest of all Iberian composers.
Baroque Anatomy
May 13, 2026
Ottavio Dantone conducts Accademia Bizantina from the harpsichord in musical jewels of the Baroque era by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann, and Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach. Featuring Marcello Gatti playing the Baroque flute or “traversiere” and Alessandro Tampieri playing violin and viola d’amore. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert February 7, 2026 at Aula Magna Università La Sapienza, ...
Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum
May 6, 2026
Twelfth-century mystic, writer, philosopher, and composer Hildegard channeled her unfaltering Christian faith through her music in the morality play Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues).
Heavenly Music! The Baroque Dulcimer
April 29, 2026
The salterio or psaltery was the Baroque era’s hammered dulcimer. Franziska Fleischanderl plays a baroque salterio that has survived to this day. She’s joined by soprano Chelsea Zurflüh and Basel’s La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, bringing us works by Corelli, Porpora, Vivaldi, Vinci, Locatelli, and more. Recorded live in concert March 20, 2025 in Basel’s St. Martin’s Church. Thanks to WFMT’s ...
Motets & Quartets
April 22, 2026
A program of Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, Johannes Bach, and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Codex Calixtinus: Vespers of Saint James
April 15, 2026
Since the ninth century, the routes to Santiago de Compostela leading to the sanctuary of St. James have attracted countless pilgrims and exercised a potent mystique.
O, Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths
April 8, 2026
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).
Music of Lamentation & Hope for Holy Week
April 1, 2026
Václav Luks conducts Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 in a program of sacred music capturing the depth of Holy Week. Performed on period instruments, this outstanding ensemble offers an intense and contemplative musical journey offering reflection and timeless beauty. Along with Jan Dismas Zelenka’s Miserere in C minor and selections from Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta, we’ll hear Antonio Caldara’s ...
The Great Eighteen: Bach’s Leipzig Chorales
March 18, 2026
Written in the last decade of his life, Bach’s chorale preludes for organ mark the pinnacle of his sacred works for organ. Daniel Gauss, organist at the Bern Cathedral, plays the Gottlieb Leuw organ, built in 1729. Recorded live in concert June 11, 2019, as part of the series Evening Music at Bern Cathedral. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the ...
Just Married!
March 11, 2026
German Baroque wedding festivities combined solemn ceremony and joyful celebration, the latter often spread over several days. Vox Luminis and the Freiburg Baroque Consort unite to perform wedding music spanning more than a century, including enchanting wedding cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and his older cousin, Johann Christoph Bach, plus Heinrich Schütz’s setting of Psalm 133: How good and pleasant ...
