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.
Sound Out of Silence: The Baroque Clavichord
July 8, 2020
Early keyboardist Terence Charlston presents the first recording on clavichord of the complete fantasias and canzonas from Johann Jacob Froberger’s Libro Secondo, written in 1649. Dedicated to Ferdinand III, the Libro Secondo, as were almost all of Forbergers works, was not published during the composer’s lifetime. Tonight’s recital comes from the CD “Froberger: Complete Fantasia and Canzonas; Terence Charlston, harpsichord; ...
La Stagione: Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe
July 1, 2020
Like many other composers of his time, Georg Philipp Telemann repeatedly addressed the theme of love in his operas and cantatas; among them, so-called wedding cantatas, commissioned by wealthy bridal couples for their wedding celebrations. One of these, Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe, receives its modern day premiere on this week’s program, along with two more Telemann secular ...
The Fortunes of Andromeda and Perseus: Spain’s First Opera
June 24, 2020
This week, Baroque&Before has the rare pleasure of presenting a performance of a work not performed publicly since the mid 17th century, or commercially recorded. Considered Spain’s first opera, tonight’s presentation of Las Fortunas de Andrómeda y Perseo comes to us from a recording made live in concert January 25, 2020 at the Konzerthaus in Vienna as part of the ...
The Schwanengesang of Heinrich Schütz
June 17, 2020
Known as the Father of German Music, Heinrich Schütz had a profound influence on generations of composers who followed. Tonight, we hear his final opus, his Schwanengesang, if you will: a monumental setting of all 176 verses of Psalm 119, plus Psalm 100, and his fourth and final setting of the Deutsches Magnificat. The RIAS Chamber Chorus, Capella de la ...
La petite merveille & il Arcangelo
June 10, 2020
Violinist Lina Tur-Bonet and harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss invite us on a journey through the music of Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, known as “La petite merveille” (The Little Marvel) and Il Arcangelo (Arcangelo Corelli.) Recorded live in concert February 14, 2019, in the Barcelona History Museum’s Capella de Santa Àgata (Saint Agnes Chapel) as part of Festival Llums d’Antiga (Lights ...
ORA Singers: Settings of Miserere – Songs of Hope
June 3, 2020
The ORA Singers presents a program of Settings of the Miserere from Allegri to Byrd to Tallis. Recorded live in concert June 7, 2019 in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Regensburg, as part of the Regensburg Early Music Festival. Thanks to Classical WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to offer tonight’s program as a stream for 30 days ...
Heinrich Schütz: Musikalische Exequien
May 27, 2020
Heinrich Schütz wrote Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7, the centerpiece of tonight’s program, upon the request of German Count Heinreich II of Reuss-Gera. It includes texts taken from the Old Testament, the gospels, and Lutheran chorales. Schütz most probably wrote it when he was Italy, where he became interested in and able to compose music to capture the meanings and imagery ...
Codex Calixtinus: Vespers of Saint James
May 20, 2020
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. What has achieved less attention is the music originally sung during the services in honor of the saint. Marcel Pérès’s in-depth study of the Codex Calixtinus, preserved at the Cathedral of Santiago, has led ...
Jordi Savall: El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat
May 13, 2020
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 ...
Masses by Joan Cererols with Jordi Savall
May 6, 2020
Born in 1618, Joan Cererols was the first great composer of the Catalan Baroque. Jordi Savall leads the Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya in two works that have brought Cererols world renown: Missa pro defunctis and Missa de batalla. Recorded live in concert April 4, 2018 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Joan Cererols, in Barcelona’s L’Auditori, as part ...
Organist Jean Guillou: An Appreciation
April 29, 2020
French organist, composer, pedagogue and organ builder Jean Guillou died January 26, 2019 at the age of 88. This week we offer an appreciation of Jean Guillou, titular organist at L’Église St. Eustache in Paris for 52 years. We’ll explore his contribution to 17th- and 18th-century organ performance practice through his interpretations of Vivaldi, Bach, and more. Recordings used in ...
Venetian Baroque Masterpieces
April 22, 2020
Violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky, cellist Ilze Grudule, and harpsichordist Ieva Saliete present masterpieces of the Baroque of the Venetian School: works by composers who flourished in the Republic of Venice in the 17th and 18th centuries. Recorded live in concert July 10, 2019 in Riga’s Mazajā ģildē (Small Guild Hall) as part of the International Festival of Early Music. Thanks to ...
Songs & Laments of the Sephardim
April 15, 2020
On this eighth night of Passover, Baroque&Before celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt with a program of sacred, paraliturgical, celebratory, and secular music of the Jews of the Mediterranean: Spain, Greece, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire. Tonight’s program will be available for on demand listening for two weeks following the broadcast.
Stabat Mater
April 8, 2020
For Easter, Baroque&Before offers two settings of the medieval Latin hymn on the suffering of Mary at the Crucifixion: the world premiere recording of Alessandro Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater of 1724, and the first studio recording of Emanuele d’Astorga’s dignified and moving Stabat Mater, circa 1707. Douglas Bostock leads Camerata Polifonica Siciliana and vocal soloists. This program will be available On ...
Riga Baroque Ensemble: Lamentations du Jeudi Saint
April 1, 2020
Riga Baroque Ensemble presents Flemish composer Joseph-Hector Fiocco’s masterpiece of Dutch Baroque music, written for Maundy Thursday and unique in the genre due to its instrumentation. The first of the Trauer-Ode of Rigan Baroque composer Daniel Kahde. Recorded live in concert April 14, 2019, (Palm Sunday) in Radio Latvia’s Studio 1, Riga. Thanks to WFMT’s membership in the European Broadcasting ...
The Great Eighteen: Bach’s Leipzig Chorales
March 25, 2020
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 ...
Lars Vogt & Bach’s Goldberg Variations
March 18, 2020
One of the essentials from the keyboard repertoire, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations is far-reaching in the compendium of emotions and sentiments it embraces, offering endless possibilities for interpretation. The transparency, delicacy, and fantasy in the treatment of the theme and variations, not to mention perfection, puts the Goldberg Variations at the pinnacle of Bachian keyboard writing. Tonight we’ll hear ...
Tiana Early Music Festival: Organs tell songs; Los órganos dizen chaçones
March 11, 2020
Guillermo Pérez presents 14th-century music performed on the iconic 14th and 15th century keyboard known as the organetto. Tonight’s recital was recorded live in concert June 6, 2018, in Tiana, Barcelona’s Chapel of Our Lady of Joy, an 11th century hermitage, as the closing recital of the Tiana Early Music Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, ...
Torroella de Montgrí Festival: From Victoria to Cererols with Tenebrae
February 26, 2020
Tenebrae, the British chamber choir specializing in Renaissance polyphony, presents the magnificent Requiem Mass by Tomás Luis de Victoria. The program opens with two works by Joan Cererols: the Salve Regina and the Battle Mass. Recorded live in concert August 8, 2018 in the Church of Sant Genís in the small Catalan town of Torroella de Montgrí on Spain’s Costa ...
Lucie Horsch & Baroque Classics
January 22, 2020
Young Dutch recorder-player Lucie Horsch is already in demand internationally as a soloist and, with a critically acclaimed solo album to her name, has launched what promises to be a distinguished career. We hear her tonight, joined by Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music, in a program of concertos and transcriptions by Bach, Vivaldi, and Sammartini that explore ...
Jaap Schröder: Requiescat in Pace
January 15, 2020
On the morning of January 1, just one day after he turned 94 years old, violinist Jaap Schröder died at his home in Amsterdam. On this week’s edition of Baroque&Before, we remember one of the first pioneers to present performances of baroque, and later, classical works, on period instruments. Recordings for this week’s program come from WFMT’s Richard and Mary ...
