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.
Lucie Horsch & Baroque Classics
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
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 ...
Avi Avital & The Virtuoso Mandolin
Les Violons du Roy welcomes Avi Avital, the ensemble’s first-ever mandolin soloist, for concerti grossi and concerti by Vivaldi, Handel, Paisiello, Durante, and more. Recorded live in concert November, 2018, in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Salle Bourgie. Thanks to Classical WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to offer tonight’s program as a stream from January ...
Ave Atque Vale: Hail & Farewell
As 2019 draws to a close, we remember the life and work of five classical artists who died this past year, all, in their own way, dedicated to the performance and diffusion of early music: champion and resuscitator of Italian baroque opera Raymond Leppard; French organist, pianist, teacher, and composer Jean Guillou; the “Rostropovich of the baroque cello” Anner Bylsma; ...
Christmas with Seconda Prat!ca & The Tallis Scholars
Baroque&Before’s special 2-hour Christmas edition opens with musical traditions of Portugal of the 15th to 17th centuries, performed by the Amsterdam-based early music ensemble Seconda Prat!ca. Recorded live in concert in the Reichssaal, Old Town Hall, Regensburg, as part of the Regensburg Early Music Festival. The second part of tonight’s program features the renowned Tallis Scholars at the Temple Winter ...
A Romanesque Christmas
On this first of two special Christmas editions of Baroque&Before, we are afforded the rare opportunity outside of Spain to hear the Mallorcan version of El Cant de la Sibil.la; the Song of the Sybil, as it has been re-enacted in the churches of Mallorca every Christmas Eve since the 15th century, as well as throughout Spain as early as ...
The Five Kingdoms of Mediæval Spain
Roman, Germanic, Byzantine, French, Arabic, and Jewish cultures all contributed to Spanish music. This week, a program of vocal music from Spain from the 13th-17th centuries: settings of secular and sacred texts by Tomás Luis de Victoria and Mateo Flecha the Elder, plus anonymous Sephardic and Navarrese love songs, reflecting the mix of cultures throughout the Five Kingdoms of Mediæval ...
Jordi Savall: Works by Diego Ortiz & Joan Cererols
Jordi Savall and La Capella Reial bring to life works by two composers from Spain with a Neapolitan connection: Toledo-born composer and music theorist Diego Ortiz, and Catalan musician and Benedictine monk Joan Cererols. Performances come from recordings from Classical WFMT’s Richard and Mary L. Gray Music Library.
Lars Vogt & Bach’s Goldberg Variations
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 ...
Codex Calixtinus: Vespers of Saint James
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 ...
Venetian Baroque Masterpieces
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 ...
La Stagione: Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe
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 ...
Heinrich Schütz: Musikalische Exequien
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 ...
Un Compás: A Voyage from Spain to the Orient
Euskal Barrokensemble (Basque Baroque Ensemble) explores the musical culture of the Mediterranean and its influence on Spanish and Italian classical music in this program recorded live in concert July 16, 2018, in the Troja Castle, one of Prague’s most beautiful Baroque villas, as part of Prague’s Summer Early Music Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’ll ...
Cavalli’s “La Calisto” from Madrid’s Teatro Real
The genius of Francesco Cavalli has languished for centuries, and only now is his music receiving the attention it deserves. Today, the joyful La Calisto, based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis, has taken its deserved place as a fundamental title in Baroque opera. For its debut at the Teatro Real, Ivor Bolton conducts the Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Monteverdi Continuo Ensemble, and ...
La petite merveille & il Arcangelo
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 ...
Tiana Early Music Festival: Organs tell songs; Los órganos dizen chaçones
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, ...
Jordi Savall & The Red Book of Montserrat
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 ...
Utrecht Early Music Festival: Rameau’s Grands Motets
Jean-Philippe Rameau left behind only a small amount of sacred music. His grand motets, settings of psalm texts, were composed between 1713 and 1720. Vox Luminis, under the direction of Lionel Meunier, presents the three remaining complete motets. Recorded live in concert August 25, 2018, in Tivoli Vredenburg’s Main Hall, as part of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. Thanks to ...
Torroella de Montgrí Festival: From Victoria to Cererols with Tenebrae
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 ...
