Baroque&Before
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.
Roderick Williams: Telemann, Bach, Handel
Baritone Roderick Williams is featured as soloist and as director of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in sacred cantatas by Bach and Telemann. Soprano Rowan Pierce joins Mr. Williams and the OAE for the secular cantata Apollo e Dafne, Handel's poignant and seductive setting of passion and desire followed by regret and penitence from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Tonight's program ...
Marais & Couperin with the Nevermind Ensemble
This week, we feature another recording made live in concert at the Music in Paradise Baroque Festival, held in Paradyż, Poland. Tonight's recital of French baroque works by Marin Marais and François Couperin presented by the Nevermind Ensemble was recorded live in concert August 20, 2017, in the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Paradyż. Paradyż ...
Easter Gregorian Chant: Songs of the Passion & Resurrection
Founded in 1970, Scola Gregoriana of Bruges dedicates itself to the revival and renewed appreciation of Gregorian chant as one of the great masterpieces of the Church and the basis of West European musical culture. Its program was recorded live in concert at the Hermitage of San Pedro in Cicera (Cantabria) Spain.
Caldara: Morte e sepoltura di Christo
To celebrate Holy Week and Easter, a special 2-hour edition of Baroque&Before presents a work that premiered in 1724. Antonio Caldara's oratorio Morte e sepoltura di Christo (Christ's Death and Burial) shows the Baroque master's remarkable ability to allow music to be inspired by text, thus creating a level of drama and empathy nearing that to be found in the ...
Ensemble Hispania: Early Baroque Motets and Cantatas
Ensemble Hispania, under the direction of Raúl Mallvibarrena, presents a recital of motets and cantatas by Dietrich Buxtehude, Johann Rosenmúller, and Franz Tunder. Recorded live in concert in Madrid's Teatro Monumental.
Hamelin, Year 1284: The Real Pied Piper?
Norbert Rodenkirchen presents a solo recital in which he attempts to reconstruct the route of the late thirteenth-century traveling flutist of legend. The Route of the Rattenfänger von Hameln is based on intensive musicological research focused on the mediaeval monodies in the minnesinger tradition of the thirteenth century and ancient Slavic music from the Baltic region. Recorded live in concert ...
Heinrich Schütz: German Music & The Reformation
Regarded not only as the Father of German Protestant music, Heinrich Schütz was the first German composer to be known throughout Europe. His choral works reveal a musical theologian of depth and sensuality. Beginning with the Italian madrigals of 1611 all the way to his spiritual choral music of 1648, Heinrich Schütz's creation and refinement of a musical interpretation worthy of ...
Jean Rondeau: Bach vs Scarlatti
Although almost exact contemporaries, the lives of Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti couldn't have been more different. Tonight, young French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau presents a program of works by Bach and Scarlatti, as well as encores by François Couperin, on the 1737 Christian Zell harpischord, only one of three Zell harpsichords remaining, held in Barcelona's Museu de la Música. ...
A Naughty, Bawdy Valentine's Day
Taking its name from the French Renaissance composer of chansons, The French early music Ensemble Clément Janequin presents a program of 15th- and 16th-century chansons. Lutenist Eric Bellocq joins the male a capella ensemble for this recital recorded live in concert in the Knight's Hall of the Moravský Krumlov Castle, as part of the Concentus Moraviae Festival.
Huelgas Ensemble: Flanders — A World of Polyphony
This evening's program paints a colorful portrait of the great age of polyphony, dominated by Franco-Flemish composers between 1450 and 1600. From generation to generation, the style, which they developed, became the musical language of Europe. The Huelgas Ensemble's diverse program of secular and sacred music provides a fine primer to the astonishing cultural sphere. Recorded live in concert June ...
Bless'd Isle
"Where words leave off, music begins," A celebration of the mastery of English composers from Dowland to Arne and settings of words to music. Soprano Carolyn Sampson is joined by the Academy of Ancient Music, under the direction of Richard Egarr, who also performs on harpsichord and organ. This special 90-minute edition of Baroque&Before was recorded live in concert November ...
Ave Maris Stella / Mary Star of the Sea
Gothic Voices presents works from the 12-15th century honoring the Biblical matriarch Mary in her various guises: caring mother, virgin lover, guiding light. Ancient ritualistic texts explore her mythical and human aspects and are set to music by masters of mediaeval England. Recorded live in concert in London's Cadogan Hall. PROGRAM Anonymous, 13th century Ave Maria; Super te Ierusalem – ...
A Feast of A Capella Music from the Renaissance
The Croatian Radio-Television Chorus under the direction of Saša Britvić presents a program of 15th- and 16th-century polyphony, focusing on works by Croatian Renaissance master of motet and madrigal Julije Skjavetić. Recorded live in concert in Zagreb's Mimara Museum. PROGRAM Philippe Verdelot (1480-1552) Madonna, non so dir Julije Skjavetić (fl. 1530-1565) Appariran per me Era il bel viso suo Io ...
In Paradiso: Spanish & Italian Canzonette
Duo La Galanía — Soprano Raquel Andueza and theorbist Jesús Fernández Baena — present a program of devotional and secular songs from 17th-century Spain and Italy. Recorded live in concert at the Church of the College of St. Michael, as part of the International Sacred Music Festival in Friburg, Switzerland. PROGRAM Anonymous Omnia vanitas praeter amare Deum, vana bergamasca Lamento ...
Ave Atque Vale: Hail and Farewell
As 2017 draws to a close, we remember the life and work of three classical artists who died this past year, each, in various degrees, dedicating himself or herself to the performance and diffusion of early music: Italian conductor and musicologist Alberto Zedda, Czech harpsichordist and teacher Zuzana Růžičková, and Siberian born Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. We laud them tonight ...
Bach's Christmas Oratorio from St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
On this special extended Christmas edition of Baroque&Before, we present a recording of Cantatas 1,2,3, and 6 of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, recorded live in concert in Leipzig's St. Thomas Church, where Bach was Kapellmeister from 1723 until his death in 1750. The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra joins the Thomanerchor, the boys' choir of St. Thomas Church, founded over 800 years ago. ...
Music for Hanukkah of the Sephardim
Songs of celebration, of life, love, and spiritual devotion of the Sephardim — the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean, Middle East, and North Africa — to celebrate the Festival of Lights. PROGRAM Salamone Rossi Sonata sopra la Bergamasca (Sonatas, Bk. IV, No. 12) Sinfonia settimadecima & Galliarda detta la Zambalina (Sinfonie e Galliarde, Bk. II) Traditional Hazaremos una merenda ...
German Motets for Advent with Capella Mariana
Czech ensemble Capella Mariana, founded in 2008, presents a program of motets from the German Renaissance and Baroque perfect for the Christmas season. Recorded live in concert December 6, 2016, from Prague's Klementinum. PROGRAM Michael Praetorius (1571-1621) Nun komm de Heien Heiland Veni redemptor gentium Ecce Dominus veniet J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Lobet den Herrn all Heiden, BWV 230 ...
The Golden Age of Iberian Sacred Music
Polyphonic sacred choral music flourished throughout the Iberian Peninsula during the Renaissance, even as Protestant countries were turning toward homophony. The Montreal Early Music Studio presents works by some of the masters of 16th- and 17th-century sacred polyphony from Spain and Portugal. Presented by Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, recorded live in concert in the Church of Saint-Léon, a ...
Tomás Luis de Victoria: The Spanish Palestrina
Known as the "Spanish Palestrina," Tomás Luis de Victoria has been called the greatest of all Iberian composers. Corund, the Swiss vocal ensemble specializing in sacred music of the Renaissance and Baroque, tonight presents a concert of a capella sacred works by Tomás Luis: three motets, followed by the Requiem of 1603. Recorded live in concert in the Valère Basilica, ...
Music from Montserrat
The new organ in the Basílica of the Montserrat Abbey (Barcelona) is the largest organ in Catalonia and one of the largest in Europe. Built by Albert Blancafort and his atelier and completed in 2010, it has 4,242 pipes and 63 registers. The Montserrat International Organ Festival invited virtuoso organists for a recital to inaugurate the new organ. Tonight we'll ...
Candice Agree joined WFMT in 2013, continuing a radio career that began with an internship at WNBC for Howard Stern and continued in Washington, DC (WETA) and New York City (WQXR, WNCN, et al.) She has been off-camera announcer for CBS News "Sunday Morning" since 1998. After studying theory and composition at Eastman School of Music, Candice received a degree in Russian from Barnard College. A Foundation for Iberian Music Contributing Scholar, her program The Spanish Hour has been distributed nationally since 2010 via PRX. You can hear her early music program, Baroque&Before, Wednesdays at 10pm on WFMT.