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.
There are no upcoming broadcasts at the moment.
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.
Jordi Savall: The Elements and the Furies
February 21, 2024
Jordi Savall and Le Concert des Nations take us on a journey through a variety of sound environments of the eighteenth century.
Jean Rondeau Plays Bach & Scarlatti
February 7, 2024
One of today's leading harpsichordists favors us with a recital of keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti.
Gesualdo & Collegium Vocale Ghent
January 31, 2024
The highly expressive polyphony of Carlo Gesualdo, as Collegium Vocale Ghent, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, offers some of the revolutionary madrigals that would shape the Baroque era.
Göteborg Baroque: The Claviorganum in Concert
January 24, 2024
A rare opportunity to hear this hybrid instrument: both harpsichord and organ.
Baroque&Before: The First Ten Years
January 3, 2024
An encore broadcast of Baroque&Before's inaugural program, first heard January 2, 2014.
Ave Atque Vale: Hail & Farewell
December 27, 2023
As we near the close of 2023, we remember the life and work of some of the classical artists who died this past year, each of whom, in his or her own way, was dedicated to the performance and diffusion of early music: Maurice Bourgue, Grace Bumbry, Ingrid Haebler, Humbert Lucarelli, Thomas Stacy, and Thomas Wikman. We laud them tonight ...
A Baroque Christmas with Concerto Copenhagen & Il Giardino Armonico
December 20, 2023
The Christmas season was an extremely busy time for church composers in the eighteenth century: congregations expected newly written music every year.
Bach & Kuhnau Magnificats for Advent
December 6, 2023
A program for Advent featuring Magnificats and festival cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Kuhnau.
Welcome to All the Pleasures: St. Cecilia’s Day with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
November 22, 2023
Internationally acclaimed keyboard artist and conductor Kristian Bezuidenhout leads works by Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel.
Dueling Keyboards: Lahti International Organ Festival
November 15, 2023
Four of today's best-known organ virtuosos – Olivier Latry (France), Shin-Young Lee (Korea/France), Guy Bovet (Switzerland,) and Hans-Ola Ericsson (Sweden) – try to outplay one another in a light-hearted competition of Who Played it Better?
Concerto Copenhagen 30th Anniversary Concert
November 8, 2023
In 2021, Concerto Copenhagen celebrated its 30th anniversary with a concert of favorites of the ensemble and the audience.
Bach, Goldberg & Vogt
November 1, 2023
Lars Vogt, one of the most talented and internationally acclaimed pianists, died on September 5, 2022, after a valiant struggle with cancer.
Les Arts Florissants: Carissimi Monteverdi
October 11, 2023
Les Arts Florissants brings us a program of sacred vocal and instrumental works.
Amazone: Jupiter Ensemble & Léa Desandre
September 13, 2023
Opera composers found irresistible the allure of the Amazons, the mythical race of female warriors whom no man could match in strength of body or mind.
Dueling Viols: Vivaldi, Gregori, Dall’Abaco & Brescianello
September 6, 2023
Along with being known as a composer, Antonio Vivaldi was a renowned violin virtuoso; no further evidence is needed than the famous violin concertos The Four Seasons.
Concerto Italiano: Alessandro Scarlatti, Handel & Francesco Mancini
August 30, 2023
Founded in 1984, Concerto Italiano has earned the reputation as one of the finest ensembles to specialize in Baroque music. On this week’s edition of Baroque&Before, we’re treated to a select chamber group from Concerto Italiano, joined by soprano Sonia Tedla and bass Gabriele Lombardi, in works by Handel, three works by Handel’s older contemporary Alessandro Scarlatti plus another, formerly ...
Josquin at the Vatican
August 16, 2023
The first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music worked for some five years as a papal cantor at the Sistine Chapel.
La Foresta Incantata: Geminiani, Handel & Vivaldi
August 2, 2023
A program of well-known works by Handel and Vivaldi.