Felix Mendelssohn: The Complex Identity That Resurrected Bach

In this episode, we dive into the fascinating historical drama of the 19th-century Bach revival, spearheaded by a 20-year-old prodigy: Felix Mendelssohn. Born into a highly prominent German-Jewish family but baptized as a Lutheran, Mendelssohn navigated a complex cultural identity in a society that demanded total assimilation while remaining deeply exclusionary. We trace how an extraordinary lineage of Berlin connoisseurs—including his Bach-connoisseur mother Lea , his great-aunt Sara Levy , and his grandmother Bella Salomon (who gifted him a rare copy of the St. Matthew Passion for his 15th birthday) —guided Felix toward a forgotten musical past. Defying the simpler, elegant "galant" and classical trends of his time , Mendelssohn embraced Bach's complex Baroque counterpoint. His historic 1829 performance at the Berlin Singakademie single-handedly resurrected Bach from near-total obscurity —setting off a global phenomenon that contains one of history's deepest cultural ironies: a composer of Jewish descent saving the greatest masterpiece of Christian choral music for the world. #classicalmusic #musichistory #podcast #HistoryPodcasts #documentary #biographies #classicalcomposers