How did Felix Mendelssohn's 1829 performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion encourage interest in older music?

Felix Mendelssohn’s 1829 performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Berlin Sing-Akademie is widely considered the catalyst for the 19th-century Bach revival and a landmark moment in the history of historicism in music.123

By conducting this large-scale performance—the first since the composer's death—Felix Mendelssohn demonstrated the enduring artistic value of older works that had largely been forgotten. This event served as a conspicuous example of the deliberate exhumation of historical music, which was supported by emerging biographical and critical studies.143

The success of this revival provided both inspiration and a model for subsequent efforts to rediscover and perform music from earlier eras. While the initial revival was interpreted through the lens of 19th-century Romanticism, it paved the way for broader 20th-century advancements in the study and performance of historical styles, including the works of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Bach himself.32