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.
Organist Jean Guillou: An Appreciation
September 30, 2026, 10:00 pm
An appreciation of French organist, composer, pedagogue and organ builder Jean Guillou, titular organist at L’Église St. Eustache in Paris for 52 years.
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 ...
In the Patron’s Shadow: Christophe Rousset in Works by Couperin
March 4, 2026
François Couperin knew all too well that the artist, immersed in the uncertainties of his world, must depend on the protection of a patron who, in return, enhances his social image as a promoter of the arts. This principle defined the modus vivendi of musicians in the Early Modern Period, and Couperin was no exception. Harpsichordist Christophe Rousset brings us ...
Bach: Mass in b minor
February 18, 2026
Nicholas Kraemer leads the Czech Philharmonic, Collegium Vocale 1704, and vocal soloists in one of the supreme works of the Baroque era; one that has fascinated musicians and listeners for more than 250 years: Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Mass in b minor. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert January 24, 2025, in Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum, Prague. Thanks to WFMT’s ...
Ars Subtilior: Ballades, Rondeaux & Virelais
February 11, 2026
Love is complicated, but not as complicated as the music that celebrates it.
Handel in Rome
January 28, 2026
In July 1707, three works by Handel were performed in the Church of Santa Maria in Montesanto in Rome: Nisi Dominus and Dixit Dominus on 16 July, and Salve Regina on 19 July. The influential Colonna family sponsored the concerts. These three works are among Handel’s outstanding sacred music output while in Italy, years that proved particularly productive. In fact, ...
Nigel Rogers: An Appreciation
January 21, 2026
In the words of harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, “There are few who can lay claim to have rediscovered an entire art, but Nigel Rogers earned the right to be one of those people who’ve changed musical performance forever. Before him, the true sound of Monteverdi and Cavalli and Cesti and Caccini was impossible to know, and after him, it will never ...
Sound Out of Silence: The Baroque Clavichord
January 14, 2026
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.
New Year’s Eve
December 31, 2025
Baroque&Before is celebrating New Year’s Eve! Join us as we enjoy WFMT’s special New Year’s Eve programming in this time slot. We’ll be back next Wednesday night, January 7 at 10. Have a happy and healthy New Year, and join us in 2026!
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Jordi Savall
December 24, 2025
Baroque&Before’s special extended Christmas edition presents Johann Sebastian Bach‘s Christmas Oratorio, written for the Christmas season of 1734-1735.
Italian Christmas Concertos
December 17, 2025
The Christmas season was an extremely busy time for church composers in the eighteenth century: congregations expected newly written music every year. A tradition emerged in the early seventeenth century of composing music with the aim of recreating the pastoral atmosphere of the first Christmas Eve. On this special Advent edition of Baroque&Before, Concerto Copenhagen starts off our program with ...
Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus”
December 10, 2025
Handel recast the story of Judas Maccabeus as a celebratory ode to King George II, with music of unprecedented refinement, gripping suspense, and drama.
La Néréide: Il concerto secreto
November 26, 2025
Ensemble La Néréide takes us back to 16th century Italy and the ducal court of Alfonso Il d’Este for works by d’Este’s own court organist Luzzasco Luzzaschi, plus gems by Caccini, Monteverdi, Rossi, and others. La Néréide’s three sopranos bring this exceptional collection of music for equal voices to its full glory. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert August ...
The Days & Seasons of Renaissance Mantua
November 19, 2025
Voces Suaves and Basel’s Capricornus Consort join forces for a program of madrigals and instrumental works by Monteverdi, Giaches De Wert, and their contemporaries.
