Mendelssohn: St. Paul, MWV A 14, Op. 36

Description

One can truly say that Mendelssohn's St. Paul oratorio is a genuine "work in progress" - such as one finds repeatedly in the composer's works. After the world premiere in Düsseldorf in 1836, the composer sighed: "Since I changed a number of things after the performance, notably in the recitatives, and omitted a few pieces entirely, I really don't know how these changes can be made in the quartet parts that have already been engraved."

Luckily, the score had not yet been printed at this point in time. It was published not long afterwards (1837) and served as the basis for the old Complete Edition, where, however, it was mixed together with other sources.