Few instances can be found in history of a man (Mendelssohn) so amply gifted with every good quality of mind and heart; so carefully brought up amongst good influences; endowed with every circumstance that would make him happy; and so thoroughly fulfilling his mission. Never perhaps could any man be found in whose life there were so few things to conceal and to regret. — Sir George Grove

Today is the 197th birth anniversary of Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, known generally as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847).

Performing groups who travel with Music Celebrations International as part of the American Celebration of Music in Germany could visit the Mendelssohn House in Leipzig on Goldsmittstrasse 12, where he lived and worked for many years and died in 1847, has been faithfully restored. Museum includes the music room with Mendelssohn’s piano in a very homey atmosphere. Other points of interest related to Mendelssohn are the Gewandhaus (The Concert Hall) where Mendelssohn was the conductor of the Gewandhous Orchestra and took it to the world fame (and where the Gewandhaus Mendelssohn Festival is a high spot in Leipzig’s musical life, providing insights into Mendelssohn’s work and influence).

Mendelssohn was deeply influenced by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of Felix’s friend, the actor Eduard Devrient, Felix arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The orchestra and choir were provided by the Berlin Singakademie of which Zelter was the prinicpal conductor. The success of this performance (the first since Bach’s death in 1750) was an important element in the revival of J.S. Bach’s music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe. It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of twenty. It also led to one of the very few references which Felix ever made to his origins: ‘To think that it took an actor and a Jew-boy (Judensohn) to revive the greatest Christian music for the world’. Mendelssohn was also instrumental in the erection of the Bach monument in Leipzig.