On today’s date in 1829, a 20-year-old German composer named Felix Mendelssohn conducted the first public performance of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” in almost a hundred years. Earlier, Mendelssohn had written to friend:

“You may know from the papers that I intend to perform the Passion by Sebastian Bach, a very beautiful and worthy piece of church music from the last century, on March 11th at the Berlin Academy of Music. I ask if it would be possible for you to grant us the pleasure of your company that evening ... to honor an old master and dignify our celebration by your presence.”

Mendelssohn’s 1829 performance sparked a revival of interest in Bach’s music, generally considered too unmelodic, mathematical, dry and incomprehensible for the audiences in Mendelssohn’s day. It really took some doing for Mendelssohn to pry the score of Bach’s Passion from the Berlin musician who owned it, and who said it was a total a waste of time to perform such an outmoded, unfashionable piece of music.

But, in fact, the performance was so well received that Bach’s Passion was presented again ten days later, to even greater acclaim, on March 21st the anniversary of Bach’s birth.