Mendelssohn and the Rediscovery of Bach: The Performance That Changed History

In the modern era, the name Johann Sebastian Bach is synonymous with the very foundation of Western music. We view his works as the ultimate classical masterpieces, yet there was a time when Bach was almost entirely forgotten by the general public. After his death in 1750, his music was regarded as "dry" and "academic," kept alive only by a small circle of specialists and students. It took the vision of a young Felix Mendelssohn to pull Bach out of the shadows and return him to his rightful place at the center of the classical repertoire. This rediscovery was not just a concert, it was a cultural revolution that reshaped the history of music forever.

The Forgotten Master of the Baroque

During the late 18th century, the musical world had moved on to the elegant "Galant" style and the rising drama of the Classical era. While Mozart and Beethoven studied Bach’s scores in private, his large-scale choral works were rarely performed. By the time Felix Mendelssohn was born in 1809, Bach was a "composer’s composer," a historical curiosity whose surgical precision in counterpoint was respected but not heard in concert halls. The St. Matthew Passion, arguably the greatest sacred music ever written, had not been performed in its entirety for nearly a century.

Mendelssohn, a child prodigy raised in a highly intellectual household, was introduced to Bach’s music by his teacher, Carl Friedrich Zelter. At the age of fourteen, Felix received a copy of the St. Matthew Passion manuscript as a gift from his grandmother. This composer story is a turning point in history: the young genius became obsessed with the score, recognizing that it was not just an academic exercise, but a profound human drama that the world needed to hear.

The 1829 Performance: A Leap of Faith

On March 11, 1829, a twenty-year-old Mendelssohn conducted a performance of the St. Matthew Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin. It was a massive undertaking that required a symphony orchestra, two choirs, and five soloists. Many of Mendelssohn’s contemporaries, including his own teacher, warned him that the public would find the music too difficult and "old-fashioned." Mendelssohn ignored the critics, even joking that "it took a Jew to restore this great Christian music to the people."

The performance was a sensation. Thousands of people were turned away at the door, and the event was repeated twice more to meet the demand. This single performance sparked what historians call the Bach Revival. Suddenly, Bach was no longer seen as a relic of the past, but as a living force of classical music. Mendelssohn’s surgical precision as a conductor and his deep emotional connection to the music allowed the audience to experience Bach’s genius for the first time in generations.

Romanticism Meets the Baroque

Why did Mendelssohn’s revival succeed where others had failed? It was because he approached Bach through the lens of Romanticism. He didn't just perform the notes, he emphasized the dramatic narrative and the intense emotionality of the text. Mendelssohn understood that Bach’s classical repertoire was not just about complex fugues, it was about faith, suffering, and redemption. This "Romantic" Bach was exactly what the 19th-century public was craving.

Following the Berlin performance, a wave of interest in early music swept across Europe. Scholars began the monumental task of collecting and publishing Bach’s complete works, a project that took decades to complete. Without Mendelssohn’s intervention, many of the classical masterpieces we cherish today, including the Mass in B Minor and the Brandenburg Concertos, might have remained lost in dusty archives, eventually crumbling into obscurity.

The Legacy of the Rediscovery

Mendelssohn’s efforts changed the way we view musical history. He established the idea of a "canon" of classical masterpieces, a list of essential works that every musician and listener should know. This concept is the reason why we still study Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart in 2026. Mendelssohn proved that great art is timeless and that every generation has a responsibility to rediscover and reinterpret the masters of the past.

Furthermore, this revival influenced Mendelssohn’s own compositions. His oratorios, such as Elijah and St. Paul, are deeply indebted to the structural foundations of Bach. By blending Baroque counterpoint with Romantic melody, Mendelssohn created a new classical repertoire that honored the past while looking toward the future. He bridged the gap between the 18th and 19th centuries, ensuring that the lineage of sacred music remained unbroken.

Conclusion: A Debt of Gratitude

Today, we take Bach’s greatness for granted, but we owe that certainty to Felix Mendelssohn. His courage to look backward while everyone else was looking forward saved the classical repertoire from losing its greatest architect. Mendelssohn’s rediscovery of Bach is a reminder that genius often requires a champion, and that the music of the past is always waiting for a new voice to bring it back to life. As we listen to the soaring choruses of the St. Matthew Passion in 2026, we are not just hearing Bach, we are hearing the legacy of the man who saved him.