Description
Bach's music came to occupy a central position for Robert Schumann, following on from his delight at Mendelssohn's performance of the 'St. Matthew Passion' in Berlin in 1829. Schumann preferred the 'St. John Passion', which never engrossed Mendelssohn as did the 'Matthew'. When Schumann was offered the post of music director in D??sseldorf in 1850, his first main project was to perform the 'St. John Passion', which had never been presented there, in April 1851: \It is much bolder, more powerful, and more poetic than the St. Matthew. This one seems to me not to be free of diffuseness and to be exceedingly long, but the other - how compact, how thoroughly genial, and of what art! Robert Schumann. Like Mendelssohn, Schumann adapted Bach's musical language to his own time: he replaced instruments that were no longer in use, and orchestrated the original anew - together with other changes. ""