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.
Les chemins hébraïques du baroque
September 16, 2026, 10:00 pm
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 ...
A Dose of Flair with Mandolinist Avi Avital
January 22, 2025
Avi Avital and B’Rock Orchestra bring a dose of flair this week, with works for mandolin and chamber orchestra by Vivaldi, Durante, Barbella, and Locatelli. Recorded live in concert May 22, 2024 at the Schwetzingen Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s Association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to bring you tonight’s program as a stream for thirty days following the ...
Soli & Tutti
January 15, 2025
Soli & Tutti is the latest project of Sempre, the baroque music ensemble. Inspired by “affetti,” Sempre takes us on a European musical journey, with sojourns in Italy, France, and England for a program full of freshness and energy. Recorded live in concert November 11, 2023 during the Bucharest Early Music Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting ...
Collegium Vocale 1704: Monteverdi 1610 Vespers
January 8, 2025
Václav Luks leads Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 in Claudio Monteverdi’s masterful Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, which represents a synthesis of the best and most sophisticated that the history of music has ever produced.
In the Footsteps of Íñigo
January 1, 2025
Inspired by Ignatius of Loyola’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya takes us on a musical journey with works by Miguel López, Joan Cererols, and Narciso Casanovas, along with anonymous works from El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert February 12, 2023 in Manresa’s Sanctuary of the Saint Ignatius Cave to the Montserrat ...
Music of the Baroque: Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
December 25, 2024, 10:00 pm
A performance led by Dame Jane Glover with soloists Yulia Van Doren, Emily Fons, Gwilym Bowen, Michael Sumuel.
Zelenka’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum
November 20, 2024
Jan Dismas Zelenka was one of the most important composers of the Czech baroque. His Missa Omnium Sanctorum of 1741 is a monumental work full of virtuosity, brilliance, and carefully crafted and impressive fugues.
Thomas Tallis’s Motets & Lamentations of Jeremiah
October 23, 2024
The Geneva-based early music ensemble Gli Angeli Genève brings us a program of Thomas Tallis's sacred anthems and motets.
Monteverdi madrigals with I Fagiolini
October 9, 2024
Lutanist Eligio Quinteiro joins British vocal ensemble I Fagiolini for a recital exploring the full spectrum of the Renaissance lament via the madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert April 29. 2024 in London’s Wigmore Hall. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to bring you I Fagiolini’s recital as a stream ...
Mahan Esfahani & The English Scarlatti
October 2, 2024
Published in London in 1739, Domenico Scarlatti’s Exercises for Harpsichord had an enormous impact on English composers, using it as a model for their own compositions. Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani brings us a selection of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas, as well as works by Scarlatti’s English contemporaries Thomas Arne and Thomas Roseingrave. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert October 12, 2022 ...
Organist Jean Guillou: An Appreciation
August 7, 2024
An appreciation of French organist, composer, pedagogue and organ builder Jean Guillou, titular organist at L’Église St. Eustache in Paris for 52 years.
En Garde! French Duels on Eight Strings
July 24, 2024
Composers and violinists Jean-Marie Leclair, Giovanni Pietro Ghignone, and Louis-Gabriel Guillemain dominated the court of Louis XV in Paris.
Melancholy and Nonsense: Madrigals for Every Mood
July 17, 2024
British vocal music ensemble I Fagiolini’s recital took place in November 2022 in Herne, Germany.
The Golden Age of Spanish Music
June 5, 2024
Viola da gambist Fahmi Alqhai and guitarist Kiyoshi Shomura bring us a recital of music by composers of 15th through 17th century Spain, El Siglo de Oro.
Grotesquerie in music of Seventeenth-century Rome
May 29, 2024
Concerto Romano brings us the complete range of high-Baroque musical drama: angels and demons, saints and sinners, in a variety of instrumental environments.
Tears of Laughter, Laughter Through Tears
May 22, 2024
Few know how to express the rollercoaster of emotions in such a suggestive and multifaceted way as the Venetian Barbara Strozzi.
Solomon Rossi & His Contemporaries
April 24, 2024
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 ...
Václav Luks, Collegium 1704 & Slavonic Baroque
April 17, 2024
Václav Luks leads Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 in Baroque works by Slavic composers: Poland's Mielczewski and Pękiel, and Bohemia's Zelenka.
Guerrero: Requiem Mass from Festival Llums d’Antiga
April 10, 2024
Among Francisco Guerrero's sacred works, the Missa pro defunctis of 1582 takes pride of place tonight.
Bach’s Mass in B Minor
March 20, 2024
Never performed during Bach's lifetime, the Mass in B Minor is rightly revered as one of mankind's greatest musical and spiritual achievements.
Femmes d’excellence with Ensemble Molière
March 6, 2024
Soprano Ruby Hughes joins Ensemble Molière to perform a program of women composers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Mademoiselle Laurent, Mademoiselle Duval, and Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
