Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky (c. 1745–1777) was a Ukrainian

Ukrainians

Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singer, and violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist.

Berezovsky was the first Ukrainian composer to be recognized throughout Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and the first to compose an opera, symphony

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

, and violin sonata

Violin sonata

A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, which is nearly always accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque period.-A:*Ella Adayevskaya**Sonata Greca for Violin or Clarinet and Piano...

. His most popular works are his sacred choral pieces written for the Orthodox Church. Much of his work has been lost; only three of the 18 known choral concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

s have been found. Dmitry Bortniansky was thought to be the first Ukrainian symphonic composer until the discovery in 2002 of Berezovsky's Symphony in C by Steven Fox

Steven Fox

Steven Fox is an American conductor of classical music. Currently Steven Fox is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of New York’s Clarion Music Society, Acting Director of Music at Trinity Church, Wall Street, and Music Director of Musica Antiqua St...

 in the Vatican archives

Vatican Library

The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...

, composed around 1770-72.

Early life

Not much is known about Berezovsky’s biography. His life story was reconstructed in a short novel written in 1840 by Nestor Kukolnik

Nestor Kukolnik

Nestor Vasilievich Kukolnik was a Russian playwright and prose writer of Carpatho-Rusyn origin. Immensely popular during the early part of his career, his works were subsequently dismissed as sententious and sentimental. Today, he is best remembered for having contributed to the libretto of the...

 and a play by Peter Smirnov staged at the Alexandrine Theatre in St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. Many particulars from these works of fiction had been accepted as fact, but have since been proven inaccurate.

Some accounts speculate that Berezovsky was born on October 27, 1745 in Hlukhiv

Hlukhiv

Hlukhiv or Glukhov is a historic town in Sumy region of Ukraine, just south from the Russian border . As of 2001, the city's population is 35,800...

, and studied at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy. However, no hard evidence exists for this information, and his name is missing from the annals of the Academy. Since Hlukhiv was the only other music school training singers for the Imperial Court Choir, it is likely that he did spend at least some of his childhood there. Today there is a monument to Maksym Berezovsky in Hlukhiv

Hlukhiv

Hlukhiv or Glukhov is a historic town in Sumy region of Ukraine, just south from the Russian border . As of 2001, the city's population is 35,800...

, which is believed to be his birthplace.

Education

On June 29, 1758 he was accepted as a singer into the Prince Peter Fedorovych

Peter III of Russia

Peter III was Emperor of Russia for six months in 1762. He was very pro-Prussian, which made him an unpopular leader. He was supposedly assassinated as a result of a conspiracy led by his wife, who succeeded him to the throne as Catherine II.-Early life and character:Peter was born in Kiel, in...

 capella in Oranienbaum (now known as Lomonosov

Lomonosov, Russia

Lomonosov is a municipal town in Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, west of St. Petersburg proper. Population:...

), near St. Petersburg. Berezovsky participated in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 operas and his name appears in printed libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

s of the operas Alessandro nell'Indie by Francesco Araja

Francesco Araja

Francesco Domenico Araja was an Italian composer who spent 25 years in Russia and wrote at least 14 operas for the Russian Imperial Court including Tsefal i Prokris, the first opera written in the Russian language.-Biography:He was born and...

 and La Semiramide riconosciuta by Vincenzo Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini was an Italian composer, harpsichordist and a music theorist.-Biography:Manfredini was born in Pistoia, near Florence....

 given in Oranienbaum

Oranienbaum

Oranienbaum may refer to:Germany:* Oranienbaum, Germany, a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany* Oranienbaum-WörlitzRussia:* Oranienbaum, Russia , a Russian royal residence* Lomonosov , the former name of the adjacent town...

 in 1759 and 1760.

In 1762 he became a singer of the Italian Capella of the St. Petersburg

Saint Petersburg Court Capella

The Saint Petersburg Court Capella is the oldest active Russian professional musical institution. Based in the city of Saint Petersburg, it was founded in 1479 by an order of Ivan III of Russia as the State Choir of Singing Dyaks. The insitution currently consists of a choir, an orchestra, and has...

 Imperial palace, which was the palace chapel choir. Here he studied under singer N. Garani and Capella director F. Zoppis and likely under composers Vincenzo Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini was an Italian composer, harpsichordist and a music theorist.-Biography:Manfredini was born in Pistoia, near Florence....

 and Baldassare Galuppi. He continued as court musician and composer for the majority of the 1760s.

In 1763 Berezovsky wed Franzina Uberscher (also translated as Francisca Iberchere), a graduate of the Oranienbaum theatrical school. Not much is known about their life together. When he died in 1777, the composer's government funeral allowance was given to court singer J. Timchenko. This implies that Berezovsky was either separated or widowed from his wife during his final days, since this allowance would normally be given to the wife of the deceased.

Berezovsky was sent to Italy in the spring of 1769 to train with renowned teacher padre Giovanni Battista Martini

Giovanni Battista Martini

Giovanni Battista Martini , also known as Padre Martini, was an Italian musician.-Biography:Martini was born at Bologna....

 at the Bologna Philharmonic Academy, where he graduated with distinction. Along with fellow graduate Josef Mysliveček

Josef Myslivecek

Josef Mysliveček was a Czech composer who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music...

, Berezowsky wrote an exam to compose a polyphonic work on a given theme. This was a similar exam to that given to fellow alumnus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

 several months earlier. Berezovsky's piece for four voices is still kept in the Academy’s archives. On May 15, 1771 he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica.

Later years

His opera Demofonte

Demofonte (Berezovsky)

Il Demofonte, also: Demofonte, Demofoonte or Demofont is an opera seria by the Ukrainian composer Maksym Berezovsky composed in 1773 to an Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio....

to the Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio was staged in Livorno

Livorno

Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and premiered in February 1773.

Berezovsky returned to St. Petersburg in October 1773 (early biographies indicate that he returned in 1775). According to archival discoveries in the late 20th century, Berezovsky was appointed a staff member of the imperial theatres and capellmeister of the Royal court capella eight months later. This was a high ranking position for a musician and contradicts the notion that Berezovsky’s talent was not appreciated upon his return to St. Petersburg. Some sources state that the he committed suicide as a result of depression for not being accepted upon his return to St. Petersburg. His first biographer, Y. Bolkhovitinov, made this assertion in 1804 based on testimonials of those who knew Berezovsky. Marina Ritzarev, a contemporary scholar, asserts that he did not commit suicide but rather likely caught a sudden fever resulting in his death after developing some psychic disease. He died in St. Petersburg on March 24 (April 2, N.S.

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...

), 1777.

Cultural influence

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....

's film Nostalghia

Nostalghia

Nostalghia is a 1983 Soviet film, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and starring Oleg Yankovsky, Domiziana Giordano and Erland Josephson.The plot of the film centers around the meaning of the term nostalgia, which describes a longing for the past, often in idealized form.-Plot:The opening scene is a...

is "a commentary on exile as told through Berezovsky's life".

External links