Mendelssohn Brings Bach’s St Matthew Passion Back to Life

On 11 March 1829, a sold-out concert in Berlin revived Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion, a work then virtually unknown outside Leipzig. In that city, sporadic performances had continued at St. Thomas Church after Bach's death in 1750. The undertaking was led by the twenty-year-old Felix Mendelssohn, whose grandmother had given him a copy of the score in 1824, when he was fifteen. His initiative transformed a neglected baroque composition into a celebrated public event.

Bach had originally composed the work for Good Friday services during his tenure as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, where its earliest verified performance took place on Good Friday, 11 April 1727; it was heard again in 1729. Setting the Passion narrative from the Gospel of Matthew alongside chorales from the Lutheran hymn book and newly written poetic texts by Picander, the composition was designed for two separate choirs and two instrumental ensembles. Bach performed it several times during his life, and his own manuscript copy of 1736 survives.