The first Mendelssohn oratorio

St. Paul is Philipp Schweizer’s favorite piece because the music and the content go hand in hand and are easily accessible to the listener. The confrontation between those who recognize Christ as the son of God (that is the Christians), and those who hold fast to the Jewish faith could scarcely be portrayed more thrillingly …

St. Paul is the first of the two major oratorios which Mendelssohn completed, but is now less well-known compared with Elijah.

The oratorio St. Paul was premiered in 1836, and was perhaps the most popular of all Mendelssohn’s works during his lifetime. It was well-received not only in Germany, but throughout Europe. It deals with the story of the apostle Paul: the stoning of Stephen, the “encounter” between Saul, and his experience with Paul on the road to Damascus are all dramatically narrated. This is followed in the second part of the work by the missionary work and the proclamation of the teachings of Jesus throughout the lands of his time. The confrontation between those who recognized Christ as the son of God, that is the Christians, and those who held fast to the Jewish faith could scarcely be portrayed more thrillingly.

St. Paul is my favorite piece because the music and the content go hand in hand and are easily accessible to the listener: whether it is the Overture which uses the chorale “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” and can be interpreted as a message to Saul and to humanity, whether it is the experience on the road to Damascus which is dramatically composed and orchestrated, allowing the listener to share in it, or whether it is the final triumphal chorus so typical of Mendelssohn which has both a thrilling and inviting effect on audiences. The form is also exciting: Mendelssohn drew on the old Bachian tradition of the extended Passions in which the arias, recitatives, and chorales were combined. Here, the use of the chorus is particularly striking; as in Bach, in St. Paul it is used as a “turba chorus” over and over, that is as a crowd scene of an angry mob, as well as in the recitatives in which the narrator outlines the plot. And compositionally too, there are Baroque references in the form of magnificent fugues, including a demanding double fugue as the conclusion of the first part.

For me, this all goes to make a work which, despite its length of over two hours, holds the attention surprisingly well, is exciting, and ultimately simply unbelievably beautiful.