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.
Seventeenth-century Fantasias
October 28, 2026, 10:00 pm
Between the early 16th and late 17th centuries, “Fancies”—fantasias for viol consort—represented one of the glories of English music, numbering in the hundreds. Prior to the advent of the classical string quartet, they stood as the supreme expression of instrumental chamber music. By the time the young Henry Purcell turned his hand to them, the form already belonged to a ...
La Stagione: Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe
July 1, 2020
Like many other composers of his time, Georg Philipp Telemann repeatedly addressed the theme of love in his operas and cantatas; among them, so-called wedding cantatas, commissioned by wealthy bridal couples for their wedding celebrations. One of these, Liebe, was ist schöner als die Liebe, receives its modern day premiere on this week’s program, along with two more Telemann secular ...
La petite merveille & il Arcangelo
June 10, 2020
Violinist Lina Tur-Bonet and harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss invite us on a journey through the music of Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, known as “La petite merveille” (The Little Marvel) and Il Arcangelo (Arcangelo Corelli.) Recorded live in concert February 14, 2019, in the Barcelona History Museum’s Capella de Santa Àgata (Saint Agnes Chapel) as part of Festival Llums d’Antiga (Lights ...
ORA Singers: Settings of Miserere – Songs of Hope
June 3, 2020
The ORA Singers presents a program of Settings of the Miserere from Allegri to Byrd to Tallis. Recorded live in concert June 7, 2019 in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Regensburg, as part of the Regensburg Early Music Festival. Thanks to Classical WFMT’s association with the European Broadcasting Union, we’re able to offer tonight’s program as a stream for 30 days ...
Heinrich Schütz: Musikalische Exequien
May 27, 2020
Heinrich Schütz wrote Musikalische Exequien, Op. 7, the centerpiece of tonight’s program, upon the request of German Count Heinreich II of Reuss-Gera. It includes texts taken from the Old Testament, the gospels, and Lutheran chorales. Schütz most probably wrote it when he was Italy, where he became interested in and able to compose music to capture the meanings and imagery ...
Jordi Savall: El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat
May 13, 2020
The Shrine of the Virgin of Montserrat was a major pilgrimage site in the 14th century. El Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, or the Red Book of Montserrat, is a 14th-century collection of devotional texts and music for the pilgrims to the Catalonian Montserrat Monastery. Tonight we hear selections from the 6 music folios contained in El Llibre Vermell, presented by ...
Riga Baroque Ensemble: Lamentations du Jeudi Saint
April 1, 2020
Riga Baroque Ensemble presents Flemish composer Joseph-Hector Fiocco’s masterpiece of Dutch Baroque music, written for Maundy Thursday and unique in the genre due to its instrumentation. The first of the Trauer-Ode of Rigan Baroque composer Daniel Kahde. Recorded live in concert April 14, 2019, (Palm Sunday) in Radio Latvia’s Studio 1, Riga. Thanks to WFMT’s membership in the European Broadcasting ...
Torroella de Montgrí Festival: From Victoria to Cererols with Tenebrae
February 26, 2020
Tenebrae, the British chamber choir specializing in Renaissance polyphony, presents the magnificent Requiem Mass by Tomás Luis de Victoria. The program opens with two works by Joan Cererols: the Salve Regina and the Battle Mass. Recorded live in concert August 8, 2018 in the Church of Sant Genís in the small Catalan town of Torroella de Montgrí on Spain’s Costa ...
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 ...