Synopsis

On today’s date in 1829, a 20-year-old German composer named Felix Mendelssohn conducted the first public performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in almost a hundred years. Earlier, Mendelssohn had written to a 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 11 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 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 performed again 10 days later, to even greater acclaim, on March 21, the anniversary of Bach’s birth.

Music Played in Today's Program

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750): St. Matthew Passion; Netherlands Bach Society; Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra; Ton Koopman, cond.