Baroque&Before

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.

Upcoming Episodes
Latest Episodes

Visitors to a manger, one on an elephant, offer gifts to a newborn.

Bach & Kuhnau Magnificats for Advent

December 6, 2023, 10:00 pm

A program for Advent featuring Magnificats and festival cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Kuhnau.

Detail of a framed marginal illustration of a man lighting the Hanukkah lamp with a congregation behind him

Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus”

December 13, 2023, 10:00 pm

Handel recast the story of Judas Maccabeus as a celebratory ode to King George II, with music of unprecedented refinement, gripping suspense, and drama.

Haloed Man and haloed woman with two cattle lookng over a haloed baby. An angel watches from above.

A Baroque Christmas was Concerto Copenhagen & Il Giardino Armonico

December 20, 2023, 10:00 pm

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 Christmas edition of Baroque&Before, Concerto Copenhagen starts off our program with ...

Ave Atque Vale: Hail & Farewell

January 4, 2023

As 2023 begins, we remember the life and work of some of the classical artists who died in the year 2022.

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Jordi Savall

December 28, 2022

Baroque&Before’s special extended Christmas edition presents Johann Sebastian Bach‘s Christmas Oratorio, written for the Christmas season of 1734-1735.

O, Jerusalem! Crossroads of Three Faiths with Apollo’s Fire

December 21, 2022

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).

15th&16th-Century Christmas Music from Saxony

December 14, 2022

Baroque&Before begins the holiday season with The Renaissance Men vocal ensemble, which performs Christmas mass by the Meissen school cantor Wolfgang Figulus.

Three Austrian Musketeers: Aufschnaiter, Muffat & Mayr

December 7, 2022

Austrian music of the baroque era was strongly influenced by the contemporary music of Italy, France, Spain, and Hungary, as well as the music of the Slavic lands. On this edition of Baroque&Before, you’ll hear those influences in distinctly Austrian works by Benedikt Anton Aufschnaiter, Georg Muffat, and Rupert Ignaz Mayr, performed by the period instrument ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria. ...

Handel’s Coronation Anthems with Berlin Academy for Ancient Music

November 30, 2022

Celebratory fare by George Frideric Handel, Orlando Gibbons, William Croft, John Blow, and Henry Purcell.

Orlando di Lasso with RIAS Chamber Chorus, Berlin

November 23, 2022

Madrigals, lieder, chansons, and sacred works by Lasso, one of the greatest composers of the late Renaissance.

Handel’s Triumph of Time and Truth

November 16, 2022

Between 1707 and 1757, Handel wrote three versions of one oratorio.

The Great Eighteen: Bach’s Leipzig Chorales

November 9, 2022

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 ...

Lutenist Luca Pianca & Harpsichordist Davide Pozzi

November 2, 2022

Music of Bach, Buxtehude, Frescobaldi, and Cazzati, performed by lutenist Luca Pianca and harpsichordist Davide Pozzi.

Bernardo Pasquini & The Martyrdom of Saint Vitus

October 26, 2022

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!

From Troubadours to People: Jordi Savall & La Capella Reial de Catalunya

October 19, 2022

Soprano Montserrat Figueras's artistic and cultural legacy, especially in the realm of early music, cannot be overstated.

Apollo’s Fire & Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610

October 12, 2022

Jeannette Sorrell, founder and director of Apollo's Fire, describes Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers as "daringly avant-garde...”

Tiburtina Ensemble & the Jistebnice Hymn Book

October 5, 2022

Jistebnice Hymn Book is the largest surviving compendium and the most important source of Hussite liturgy and singing in the Czech lands.

Violin Sonatas by Corelli, Bach & Handel

September 28, 2022

Violinist Mayumi Hirasaki and harpsichordist Lorenzo Ghielmi share works by Bach, Corelli, Handel, and Telemann, as well as music that may or may not be by Bach and Handel.

Montserrat Figueras at the Montserrat Abbey

September 14, 2022

Soprano Montserrat Figueras died on November 23, 2011 at the age of 69. The cause was cancer. Her artistic and cultural legacy, especially in the realm of early music, cannot be overstated. In this tribute to Montserrat Figueras, co-founder with her husband Jordi Savall of Hespèrion XX and Le Concert des Nations, we hear a program of Canticles to the ...