Maxim Berezovsky

Not much is known about Maxim Berezovsky's biography. The composer's father, most likely, belonged to the petty nobility. Contemporary descendants of Pavel Sozontovich Berezovsky, who is believed to be Maxim's brother, associate the family's origins with the Glukhov Cossacks. The Berezovsky coat of arms has also been preserved, testifying to his family's Polish origins.[4] His life story was reconstructed in a short novel written in 1840 by Nestor Kukolnik and a play by Peter Smirnov staged at the Alexandrine Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Many particulars from these works of fiction had been accepted as fact, but have since been proven inaccurate.

It was previously believed that Berezovsky had been born on 16 (27) October 1745. This year, first mentioned by the teacher Petr Belikov of the St. Petersburg Court Capella, then accepted by Russian scholars, is however not confirmed in any documents. In various 19th-century Russian and Western sources other dates can be found: 1743, 1742, and even 1725.[5]

His birthplace is uncertain,[6][2] but according to many sources is Glukhov, at that time the main residence of the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host (now Hlukhiv, a small town in the Sumy Oblast of Ukraine).[2][3][7][8][9] In the 18th century, Glukhov served as the capital of the Cossack Hetmanate and the administrative center of the Little Russia Governorate. It is likely that Berezovsky spent a part of his childhood in the city of Glukhov, since it was then a major center of training for choristers destined for St. Petersburg's Capella. Today there is a monument to Maxim Berezovsky in Glukhov.[10]

In some sources, Berezovsky is referred to as a graduate of the Glukhov Music School.[11] However, his name does not appear in the surviving documents of this institution. Since the school in Glukhov was the only one in the Russian Empire training singers for the Imperial Court Choir, it is likely that he did spend at least some of his childhood there.[4]

The 19th-century authors claimed that Berezovsky had also received education at the Kiev Theological Academy. The Academy's acts and documents that were made public in the early 20th century mentioned five persons with his surname but had no record of Maxim Berezovsky.[12]

The first historically verifiable information about Berezovsky can be traced back to 1758. On 29 June 1758, he was accepted as a singer into the Prince Peter Fedorovich of Russia capella in Oranienbaum (now known as Lomonosov), near Saint Petersburg. Berezovsky participated in Italian operas and his name appears in printed librettos of the operas Alessandro nell'Indie by Francesco Araja and La Semiramide riconosciuta by Vincenzo Manfredini given in Oranienbaum in 1759 and 1760.

In 1762, he became a singer of the Italian Capella of the Saint Petersburg 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 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 at the Bologna Philharmonic Academy, where he graduated with distinction. Along with fellow graduate Josef Mysliveček, Berezowsky's exam task was to compose a polyphonic work on a given theme. This was a similar exam to the one given to his fellow alumnus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart several months earlier, after which both graduated with distinction.[13] Berezovsky's piece for four voices is still kept in the Academy's archives. On 15 May 1771 he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica.

His opera Demofonte to the Italian libretto by Pietro Metastasio was staged in Livorno, Italy, and premiered in February 1773.

Berezovsky returned to Saint 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 Theater and kapellmeister 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 Saint Petersburg. Some sources state that he committed suicide as a result of depression for not being accepted upon his return to Saint Petersburg. His first biographer, Eugene 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 mental illness. He died in Saint Petersburg on 24 March (2 April N.S.) 1777.

Berezovsky is known as an author of sacred concertos, written after returning from Italy. The most popular among them is the concerto "Do not reject me in old age". He combined in his work the experience of Western European musical culture of that time with the national traditions of choir art. Together with Bortniansky he created a classical type of choral concerto.

Andrei Tarkovsky's 1983 film Nostalghia is "a commentary on exile as told through Berezovsky's life".[23]

• Dmitry Bortniansky
• List of Russian composers
• List of Ukrainian composers

• Media related to Maxim Berezovsky at Wikimedia Commons
• Free scores by Maxim Berezovsky in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Maxim Berezovsky at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)