Mendelssohn revived Bach—then history nearly erased him
Felix Mendelssohn's Wedding March and Midsummer Night's Dream music feel permanent, yet late-nineteenth taste and antisemitism pushed his name down for decades. The baptized grandson of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn had already changed the canon in 1829 by conducting Bach's St Matthew Passion back into public life.
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was born 3 February 1809 and died 4 November 1847. Raised without religion at first, he was baptized at seven into the Reformed church. Parents cautious about prodigy fame still gave him and sister Fanny elite musical training; some of Fanny's early songs were published under Felix's name. Recognized early as a wonder, he grew into a composer-pianist-organist-conductor whose Octet, Italian and Scottish symphonies, violin concerto, and Elijah oratorio defined early Romantic polish without abandoning Classical clarity.
German success came young. In 1829 he led Bach's St Matthew Passion back into public hearing, a performance that famously revived serious interest in the older master. Ten visits to Britain premiered major works and cemented an Anglo-German career that made him a star conductor as well as composer. Conservative musical tastes set him apart from more radical Romantics even while audiences adored the sparkle of fairy overtures and the solemnity of sacred drama.
After his death, shifting fashion plus antisemitic currents in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries dimmed his standing; later reevaluation restored him among the era's most popular composers. The short life left an outsized map: theater music that still walks brides down aisles, an oratorio repertoire staple, and a deliberate act of historical rescue. When people hum the Wedding March, they are hearing a craftsman who also insisted an older German master still belonged on the stage. Conservatories that once sidelined him now treat the polish as a virtue rather than a limitation of daring.
Source: Felix Mendelssohn
