ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the question of Felix Mendelssohn's programming politics in his capacity as music director of the Grossen Concerts in Leipzig. The different cycles of historische Konzerte are among the best-known contributions towards appreciating Bach and the music of the past in the age of romanticism. Many of the characteristics, such as skepticism towards the higher value placed on older vocal polyphony common in Thibaut's circles and others, can be explained largely by Mendelssohn's personal preferences. The fundamental continuity of the Friedrich Rochlitz conception with the Leipzig practice of historische Konzerte before and after Mendelssohn's appointment can thus hardly be denied. The employment of the organ in Mendelssohn's most mature and important performances of Bach came very close to his own large-scale compositions on sacred texts. That it was under Mendelssohn's aegis that several Bach cantatas were performed in the Gewandhaus clearly represented progress.
