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.
Sonate italiane
July 15, 2026, 10:00 pm
Violinist Fabio Biondi leads Europa Galante in Italian sonatas by Corelli, Vivaldi, Geminiani, Tartini, Veracini and Locatelli. Recorded live in concert July 22, 2023, in the extraordinary acoustics of Świdnica, Poland’s Church of Peace, the world’s largest wooden Baroque church and a Unesco World heritage site, as part of the International Bach Festival, founded in 2005 and held each year ...
Napoli illustrissima
July 22, 2026, 10:00 pm
Violinist Eva Saladin, cellist Daniel Rosin, and harpsichordist Johannes Keller present works by composers who lived or worked in Naples in the 18th century.
Apollo’s Fire & Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610
July 29, 2026, 10:00 pm
Jeannette Sorrell, founder and director of Apollo's Fire, describes Monteverdi's 1610 Vespers as "daringly avant-garde...”
Lucie Horsch & Baroque Classics
January 22, 2020
Young Dutch recorder-player Lucie Horsch is already in demand internationally as a soloist and, with a critically acclaimed solo album to her name, has launched what promises to be a distinguished career. We hear her tonight, joined by Richard Egarr and the Academy of Ancient Music, in a program of concertos and transcriptions by Bach, Vivaldi, and Sammartini that explore ...
Avi Avital & The Virtuoso Mandolin
January 8, 2020
Les Violons du Roy welcomes Avi Avital, the ensemble’s first-ever mandolin soloist, for concerti grossi and concerti by Vivaldi, Handel, Paisiello, Durante, and more. Recorded live in concert November, 2018, in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Salle Bourgie. Thanks to Classical WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to offer tonight’s program as a stream from January ...
Ave Atque Vale: Hail & Farewell
January 1, 2020
As 2019 draws to a close, we remember the life and work of five classical artists who died this past year, all, in their own way, dedicated to the performance and diffusion of early music: champion and resuscitator of Italian baroque opera Raymond Leppard; French organist, pianist, teacher, and composer Jean Guillou; the “Rostropovich of the baroque cello” Anner Bylsma; ...
Christmas with Seconda Prat!ca & The Tallis Scholars
December 25, 2019
Baroque&Before’s special 2-hour Christmas edition opens with musical traditions of Portugal of the 15th to 17th centuries, performed by the Amsterdam-based early music ensemble Seconda Prat!ca. Recorded live in concert in the Reichssaal, Old Town Hall, Regensburg, as part of the Regensburg Early Music Festival. The second part of tonight’s program features the renowned Tallis Scholars at the Temple Winter ...
Un Compás: A Voyage from Spain to the Orient
October 23, 2019
Euskal Barrokensemble (Basque Baroque Ensemble) explores the musical culture of the Mediterranean and its influence on Spanish and Italian classical music in this program recorded live in concert July 16, 2018, in the Troja Castle, one of Prague’s most beautiful Baroque villas, as part of Prague’s Summer Early Music Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’ll ...
Cavalli’s ‘La Calisto’ from Madrid’s Teatro Real
October 16, 2019
The genius of Francesco Cavalli has languished for centuries, and only now is his music receiving the attention it deserves. Today, the joyful La Calisto, based on Ovid’s Metamorphosis, has taken its deserved place as a fundamental title in Baroque opera. For its debut at the Teatro Real, Ivor Bolton conducts the Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, Monteverdi Continuo Ensemble, and ...
Utrecht Early Music Festival: Rameau’s Grands Motets
September 11, 2019
Jean-Philippe Rameau left behind only a small amount of sacred music. His grand motets, settings of psalm texts, were composed between 1713 and 1720. Vox Luminis, under the direction of Lionel Meunier, presents the three remaining complete motets. Recorded live in concert August 25, 2018, in Tivoli Vredenburg’s Main Hall, as part of the Utrecht Early Music Festival. Thanks to ...
The Baroque Organ: Ton Koopman in Japan
August 28, 2019
Dutch conductor, harpsichordist, and organist Ton Koopman presents a solo organ recital of masterworks of the Baroque. Recorded live in concert July 13, 2018, Mr. Koopman performs on the Kuhn organ of 71 stops and 5200 pipes in Japan’s Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall.
Ave Atque Vale: Hail & Farewell, Anner Bylsma
August 7, 2019
Called the “Rostropovich of the baroque cello” by the Boston Globe, Anner Bylsma was one of the leading cellists in the world. On this edition of Baroque&Before, we remember Dutch cellist Anner Bylsma, who died July 25, 2019 at the age of 85. We say Ave Atque Vale — Hail & Farewell, and share his recordings of Bach, Corelli, and ...
Telemann in Paradise
July 31, 2019
At the age of 24, Telemann received an invitation to become Kapellmeister for the court of Count Erdmann II of Promnitz at Sorau — now Żary — in Poland. The young composer was inspired by the melodies and the skills in improvisation of the Polish folk musicians. The music he sought out and absorbed during his brief stay in Poland ...
Morgenstern: 15th-century German & Polish Treasures
July 24, 2019
On this week’s edition of Baroque&Before, Corina Marti and Roger Hélou present arrangements for recorders, clavisymbalum, and organetto of works from three fifteenth-century collections of original compositions and arrangements: The Buxheimer Orgelbuch, the Glogauer Liederbuch, and the Lochhamer Liederbuch. Recorded live in concert August 18, 2017 in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paradyż, Poland ...
Soli Deo Gloria Festival: Bach’s Reformation Cantatas
July 17, 2019
Founded in 1968 by conductor Frieder Bernius, The Stuttgart Chamber Choir (Kammerchor Stuttgart) is devoted to historically informed performances. Tonight we hear three choral masterworks by Bach. Recorded live in concert June 6, 2017, in St. Martin’s Church, Braunschweig (Brunswick) Germany, as part of the 2017 Soli Deo Gloria Festival. Thanks to WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we ...
The Birth of The Violin
July 10, 2019
Specializing in music of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, Le Miroir de Musique presents a program of works from the Franco-Flemish school that had been flourishing in Italy since the middle of the 15th century as well as works from the pure Italian style that were in the process of being reborn. Recorded in Lausanne, Switzerland’s Église de ...
Gems of the Bohemian Reformation
July 3, 2019
Vojtěch Semerád leads the Cappella Mariana Choir and Capella Ornamentata Instrumental Ensemble in sacred and secular works by Italian, Flemish, and Czech composers during the reign of Emperor Rudolph II. Recorded live in concert November 10, 2017, in Herne’s Kreuzkirche, as part of the Early Music Days Festival held in the German City of Herne. Thanks to WFMT’s association with ...
O Dolce Mio Tesoro
June 26, 2019
Collegium Vocale Gent presents a program of madrigals by Carlo Gesualdo di Venosa, a member of the nobility who composed for his own pleasure, creating works that harmonically were some 300 years ahead of their time. Lutenist Thomas Dunford is heard in works by Kapsberger and Dowland. Recorded live in concert May 31 in Sion, Switzerland.
Alessandro Scarlatti: San Casimiro, re di Polonia
June 12, 2019
Premiering in Florence in 1705, Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio for 5 solo voices and instrumental ensemble presents an allegory on the temptations by Regio Fasto (Royal Splendor) and Amor Profano (Profane Love) on Poland’s patron saint, the 15th century Prince Kazimierz, with Castità (Chastity) and Umiltà (Humility) triumphant in the struggle for Prince Casimir’s soul. Recorded live in concert July 15, ...
The Piper & The Fairy Queen
May 15, 2019
Founded by the Irish harpsichordist and organist Malcolm Proud and the Swiss violinist Maya Homburger, Camerata Kilkenny is a period instrument group specializing in the performance of Baroque music. The great Uilleann piper David Power joins Camerata Kilkenny for a program of Baroque classics and traditional Irish favorites. Recorded live in concert August 10, 2018 in St Lawrence’s Church, a ...
Lumen Valo: Hymns from Mediæval & Renaissance Finland
May 8, 2019
Lutheranism was introduced gradually in Finland, which itself was a part of Sweden until 1809. The ties with Rome were broken in the 1520s, but it took almost the whole century for the Reformation to take root throughout the country. In 1582, the Finnish student Petri Rutha published a collection of popular Central European mediæval and early Renaissance songs. In ...
Sollazzo Ensemble: Contenance angloise
May 1, 2019
The Pan-European Sollazzo Ensemble, winners of the 2015 York Early Music Competition, brings its vivid style of performance to intimate and profound music that still speaks to us through the centuries. The program presents a fascinating example of a 15th century English cultural export: the so-called contenance angloise or English manner. This distinctive style of polyphony, developed in fifteenth-century England, ...
Pergolesi: Septem verba a Christo
April 17, 2019
Now attributed to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi on the basis of the most recent research, the Seven Words of Christ has been regarded, ever since it was discovered by Hermann Scherchen, as “one of the most heartfelt works of art, full of profound tenderness and an all-conquering sense of beauty.” Written during the last three years of life, the Septem verba ...
