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.
Graindelavoix & The Feminine Mystisch
September 26, 2018
A capella polyphony from the 12th and 13th centuries is brought to life in works by Hildegard von Bingen, Beatrijs van Nazareth, Hadewijch, Pierre de Cambrai, Pérotin (who greatly influenced composer Steve Reich,) Goswin de Bossut, and others. Presented by the vocal ensemble Graindelavoix under the direction of Björn Schmelzer, recorded live in concert in the Pfarrkirche St. Severus, in ...
Songs & Laments of the Sephardim
September 19, 2018
Baroque&Before marks the conclusion of the Jewish High Holy Days with a program of sacred, paraliturgical, celebratory, and secular music of the Jews of the Mediterranean: Spain, Greece, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire.
Music In Paradise: The Baroque Psaltery
September 12, 2018
Call it tympanon, hackbrett, cymbalon, dulcimer, or zither, tonight’s program features Komalé Akakpo in a solo recital of 17th-century works played on the hammered dulcimer. Recorded live in concert during the 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.
Sacred Bridges: Music of the Abrahamic Faiths
September 5, 2018
Psalm settings by composers of the same epoch, but from three cultures and religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam, featuring works from the 4th through the 17th century. Tonight’s program encompasses songs of lament and joy, confessions of sin, and songs of praise and glory, as polyphonic psalm settings by Claude Goudimel and Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck blend with Alî Ufkî’s ...
Brother Fire, Sister Water
August 29, 2018
Ars Nova Copenhagen in a program of English and Italian works from the 13th and 14th centuries. Recorded live in concert at the Kostel Matky Boží před Týnem (Church of Mother of God before Týn) in Prague, as part of the Dvořák Prague International Music Festival Then, anthems by Henry Purcell, with Collegium Vocale Ghent. Recorded live in concert in ...
The Huelgas Codex
August 22, 2018
Dating from the turn of the 14th century, rediscovered at the turn of the 20th, Codex Las Huelgas is an important piece of musical and cultural history, essential for understanding medieval Spanish polyphony. Named for the Convent Las Huelgas, a true refuge for women following the Cistercian order, the Codex contains 186 liturgical works. On tonight’s program, La Peregrina, Canto ...
Collegium Vocale Ghent: Hail, Bright Cecilia
August 15, 2018
Tonight’s recital, “Hail, Bright Cecilia,” presented by Collegium Vocale Ghent, founded in 1970 by Philippe Herreweghe, comes to us from the Wratislavia Cantans Festival, also known as the International Festival of Oratorio and Cantata Music, held every September in Wrocław, Poland, and since 2005 under the artistic direction of Paul McCreesh. Recorded live in concert in the Polish National Catholic ...
Heinrich Schütz: A Symphony of Psalms
August 8, 2018
Under the direction of Paul Hillier, Ars Nova Copenhagen and Concerto Copenhagen join forces to present sacred motets and the famous German Magnificat of Heinrich Schütz. Also on the program: selections from the Clausholm Fragments and a sonata by Giovanni Gabrielli, whose Venetian polychoral style had a great influence of Schütz. Recorded live in concert in Copenhagen’s Garrison Church as ...
Andreas Staier: Pour passer la mélancolie
August 1, 2018
The renowned keyboardist Andreas Staier presents a survey of early French baroque music for the harpsichord and its adaptation by Johann Sebastian Bach. Mr. Staier’s program, entitled Pour passer la mélancolie takes its name from his Gramophone award-winning recording of 2013. Tonight’s Baroque&Before was recorded live in concert in London’s Wigmore Hall.
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 ...
Bohemian Rhapsody (Reformation Edition)
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 ...