Mendelssohn, Felix

(3 February 1809, Hamburg – 4 November 1847, Leipzig)

   Renowned conductor and composer of symphonic, piano, and chamber works, Mendelssohn also composed nearly 30 sacred motets, psalms, and canticles, in German and in Latin, with orchestral accompaniment, and another three dozen shorter works more modestly scored. This collection remains neglected. Better known are works for organ: six sonatas, three preludes and fugues, and two dozen smaller works. He also completed two oratorios, St. Paul (Paulus, 1834–1836) and Elijah (Elias, 1846), which remain in the choral concert repertory.

   Mendelssohn was one of the very first to champion the music of the past, affecting the appreciation of sacred music in Europe more materially than through his own music. He almost singlehandedly inaugurated the revival of interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach when he organized and conducted what was thought to be an impossible work, the St. Matthew Passion, by the Berlin Singakademie on 11 March 1829, and he similarly ignited the German fascination with George Frideric Handel with a performance in Düsseldorf of Israel in Egypt on 26 May 1833, followed up in later years by other Handel oratorios, all in Mendelssohn’s own arrangements.