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.
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 ...
Solomon Rossi & His Contemporaries
July 7, 2021
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 ...
The Fortunes of Andromeda and Perseus: Spain’s First Opera
June 30, 2021
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. Often referred to as 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 ...
Ignacio Prego: El Canto del Cavallero
June 23, 2021
Spanish harpsichordist Ignacio Prego presents a program of keyboard music at the Spanish Court during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It’s a fascinating musical journey through three centuries of Spanish keyboard music, starting with the Court of Felipe II. This was Baroque&Before’s inaugural program, first heard January 2, 2014. Recorded live in concert October 31, 2013 at Instituto Cervantes ...
El Gran Teatro Del Mundo: The Lullists; German Baroque Music à la française
June 16, 2021
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 ...
Huelgas Ensemble: A Polyphonic Testament of Josquin Desprez
June 9, 2021
The Huelgas Ensemble presents a concert of motets, chansons, and mass fragments by Josquin Desprez, the French Renaissance composer who is remembered as one of the great exemplars of the Golden Age of Counterpoint. In the words of Founder and Artistic Director of the Huelgas Ensemble, Paul Van Nevel, “Josquin was a pioneer. He mastered all the contrapuntal techniques to ...
Jordi Savall: Works by Diego Ortiz & Joan Cererols
June 2, 2021
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.
Jordi Savall&Orpheus XXI: Music for Life and Dignity
May 19, 2021
It was in 2002 that the United Nation first declared May 21 as UNESCO World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development. On this week’s edition of Baroque&Before, our program celebrates this event with a Concert of Music for Life and Dignity. Jordi Savall leads Orpheus XXI, a group of professional musicians of diverse origins, at the Poblet Early ...
Lutenist & Guitarist Julian Bream
May 12, 2021
English lutenist and guitarist Julian Bream’s contributions to music are innumerable. Along with Andrés Segovia, Bream is regarded as the most charismatic and influential classical guitarist of the 20th century. Although his repertoire spanned the centuries, on this edition of Baroque&Before, we’ll focus on his interpretations of works of the Renaissance and Baroque. Recordings used in this program come from ...
Bach in Norway
May 5, 2021
Under the direction of Bjarte Eike, Barokkanerne and vocal soloists present two relatively unknown masterpieces by Bach – Missa Brevis in A minor (BWV 234) and Missa Brevis in g minor (BWV 235), also known as the Kyrie-Gloria masses. Also on the program is the beautiful motet O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (BWV 118). Due to the pandemic, tonight’s ...
Ave Atque Vale: Harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper
April 28, 2021
Baroque&Before remembers early keyboardist Kenneth Cooper, who died March 13, 2021 at the age of 79. He’s 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. On this edition of Baroque&Before, we sample a very few of his performances from the Baroque era, part ...
Les Plaisirs: Secular Baroque Cantatas
April 21, 2021
What brings us joy? The simple things: friends, music, a piping hot cup of coffee. In 18th-century Europe, coffee was still a rather rare and not widely available beverage. On this edition of Baroque&Before, Collegium Marianum celebrates Baroque Europe’s coffee craze, along with a variety of delights and pleasures. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert March 5, 2019, in ...
Cosmopolitanism of the Portuguese Baroque
April 14, 2021
Tonight’s program of chamber music by Portuguese composers and the Italian composers who influenced them is presented by Divino Sospiro, a chamber ensemble founded in Portugal in 2002, directed by the Italian-born conductor and violist Massimo Mazzeo, joined by soprano Eduarda Melo. The music we’ll hear was recorded live March 21, 2021 in the National Palace of Queluz. Due to ...
Bach’s Goldberg Variations with András Schiff
April 7, 2021
Join pianist András Schiff on a voyage through Bach’s monumental work for solo keyboard. The Goldberg Variations was recorded live in concert August 22, 2015 at London’s Royal Albert Hall, made available just recently thanks to WFMT’s affiliation with the European Broadcasting Union. Tonight’s program will be available as a stream for thirty days following tonight’s broadcast. A blue “Listen” ...
Stabat Mater for Holy Week
March 31, 2021
As Easter draws near, 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 ...
Songs & Laments of the Sephardim
March 24, 2021
Passover begins at sundown on Saturday, March 27. Tonight, 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.
The Great Eighteen: Bach’s Leipzig Chorales
March 17, 2021
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 ...
The Five Kingdons of Mediæval Spain
March 10, 2021
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 ...
Bernardo Pasquini & The Martyrdom of Saint Vitus
March 3, 2021
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! In Pasquini’s oratorio, the emperor’s son of legend becomes Valeria, the pretty emperor’s daughter who falls in love with Vitus. Now, that’s entertainment! On this edition of Baroque&Before we’ll ...
Sound Out of Silence: The Baroque Clavichord
February 17, 2021
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. As were almost all of Froberger’s works, the Libro Secondo was not published during the composer’s lifetime. Tonight’s recital comes from the CD “Froberger: Complete Fantasia and Canzonas; Terence Charlston, harpsichord; Divine Art; DDA 25204 ...
Ars Subtilior: Ballades, Rondeaux & Virelais
February 10, 2021
Near the end of the fourteenth century, around the 1370s and 80s, the movement known as ars nova would cede its musical dominance to a more highly refined musical style that was complex, difficult to write, and difficult to sing. One of the distinguishing characteristic of ars subtilior is its musical notation, the manuscripts sometimes presented as a form of ...
