Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Saint Paul

Part I

1. Overture

2. Chorus

Lord, thou alone art God,
and thine are the heavens, the earth, and mighty waters.
The heathen furiously rage, Lord,
against thee and thy Christ.
Now behold, lest our foes prevail,
and grant to thy servants
all strength and joyfulness,
that they may preach thy word.
Ac 4:24,26,29

3. Chorale

To God on high be thanks and praise,
who deigns our bonds to sever,
His cares our drooping souls upraise,
and harm shall reach us never:
On him we rest, with faith assur’d,
of all that live the mighty Lord,
for ever and for ever.
Nikolaus Decius 1525

4. Recitative and Duet

Soprano
And the many that believed were of one heart and of one soul, and Stephen full of faith and full of power, did great wonders among the people; and they of the Synagogue were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with which he spake. Then they suborned men who were false witnesses, which said:
Ac 4:32; 6,8-11

False witnesses (Basso I/II)
We verily have heard him blaspheme against these holy places and against the law.
Ac 6:11

Erster Teil

1. Ouvertüre

2. Chor

Herr, der du bist der Gott,
der Himmel und Erde und das Meer gemacht hat.
Die Heiden lehnen sich auf, Herr,
wider dich und deinen Christ.
Und nun, Herr, siehe an ihr Droh’n,
und gib deinen Knechten
mit aller Freudigkeit zu reden dein Wort.
Apg 4,24.26.29

3. Choral

Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr
und Dank für seine Gnade,
darum, dass nun und nimmermehr
uns rühren kann kein Schade.
Ganz unermess’n ist seine Macht,
nur das geschieht, was er bedacht,
wohl uns, wohl uns des Herren.
Nikolaus Decius 1525

4. Rezitativ und Duett

Sopran
Die Menge der Gläubigen war ein Herz und eine Seele.
Stephanus aber, voll Glauben und Kräfte, tat Wunder vor dem Volk,
und die Schriftgelehrten vermochten nicht zu widerstehn der Weisheit und dem Geist, aus welchem er redete, da richteten sie zu etliche Männer,
die da sprachen:
Apg 4,32; 6,8–11

Falsche Zeugen (Bass I/II)
Wir haben ihn gehört Lästerworte reden wider diese heilige Stätte und das Gesetz.
Apg

Text from the CD Carus 83.021

R. Larry Todd

It is probably no exaggeration to claim that St. Paul, based largely upon the Acts of the Apostles and recounting the conversion of Saul of Tarsus to the early Christian missionary Paul, was Mendelssohn’s most popular work during his lifetime. Composed between 1834 and 1836 and premiered in Düsseldorf on May 22, 1836 (Pentecost), the oratorio initially received acclaim rarely rivaled in the annals of music history. When Mendelssohn conducted it in England at the Birmingham Musical Festival of 1837, the work was favorably compared to the immortal oratorios of Handel. Numerous performances quickly followed in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, Poland, Russia, and even the United States. In 1839, when Mendelssohn conducted St. Paul in Brunswick, H. F. Chorley averred “there is little modern music which gains so much with every subsequent hearing as that of the ‘St Paul.’” But further on in the century, distinctly negative impressions accrued. If Wagner, after hearing Mendelssohn conduct the oratorio on Palm Sunday in 1843, praised it as a classical masterwork, he later introduced into his writings a virulent racist strain and attacked Mendelssohn, a member of a prominent Jewish