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 ...
Songs for Troubled Times: Music from Reformation England
June 28, 2023
Male vocal ensemble Cinquecento, specializing in music of the sixteenth century, brings us works by Tallis, Byrd, Tye, and others.
The Gesualdo Six: Josquin’s Legacy
June 21, 2023
Chansons, motets, and antiphons that illuminate the music of Josquin des Prez and his Franco-Flemish circle in the late 15 and early 16th centuries.
Handel’s “Aminta e Fillide” with Opera Settecento & Fair Oriana
June 14, 2023
Handel was twenty-two when he wrote this pastoral cantata about a love-struck shepherd and the nymph he's fallen for.
Sacred works of Hieronymus Praetorius
June 7, 2023
Spanning the late Renaissance and the early Baroque, North German composer and organist Hieronymous Praetorius is revered for his polychoral settings of masses and the Magnificat.
Missa Amabilis
May 31, 2023
Among Venetian Antonio Caldara’s seventy-plus operas, thirty-plus oratorios, motets, and sonatas is the work we’ll hear on this edition of Baroque&Before: the Missa amabilis, a gem of inventive melody, daring harmony, and skillful counterpoint. Tonight’s program was recorded live in concert May 28, 2022 in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, as part of the German Chorus Festival. Fabian Enders leads the ...
Florie Valiquette & Les Talens Lyriques
May 10, 2023
Soprano Florie Valiquette joins historically-informed early music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques for a delightful mix of dances, arias, cantatas and instrumental works.
The Cardinall’s Musick: Works for Passiontide
April 5, 2023
Andrew Carwood directs early-music vocal ensemble The Cardinall’s Musick in a program titled Christ on this Cross: A Meditation on the Crucifixion; a concert of works for Passiontide.
Bach in Norway
March 29, 2023
From Oslo, an all-Bach program performed by Barokkanerne, Scandinavia’s first independent professional baroque orchestra.
Arcangelo: Handel, Bach & Vivaldi
March 22, 2023
Soprano Carolyn Sampson and countertenor Tim Mead join Arcangelo, under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, for a program comprising music of three leading Baroque composers.
Baroque Music in the Iberian & Italian Courts
March 15, 2023
Iberian Ensemble, founded in 2014, comprising baroque violin, viola da gamba, traverso, and harpsichord, presents historically informed interpretations that reveal the stylistic richness of Baroque repertory. On this edition of Baroque&Before, the focus is on instrumental works of the 17th and 18th centuries from Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. This week’s program was recorded live in concert March 3, 2022 in ...
Maddalena Casulana & Barbara Strozzi Rediscovered
March 8, 2023
In one of the most important musicological discoveries of recent years, the lost Alto partbook of Maddalena Casulana’s 1583 First Book of five-voice madrigals has been found.
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: “Elle est originale”
February 8, 2023
“Elle est originale.” These words were how King Louis XIV described the young Élisabeth Jacquet. Tonight’s program features the French ensemble Nevermind in chamber music of the gifted Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, whose contributions to the musical life of Louis XIV’s court was exceptional, and who composed in many of the musical forms of her day to the admiration ...
The Elusive Handel
February 1, 2023
Well known for his vocal music, Handel's chamber music, written sporadically and published chaotically, is much more elusive.
Folías & Romanescas: Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI
January 18, 2023
Savall returned to Ascona with Hespèrion XXI Ensemble with a program of “Folias & Romanescas,” featuring works from the Old and New Worlds.
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.
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.
