Maxim Berezovsky

Maxim Berezovsky (c. 1745—1777) was a composer, opera singer, bassist and violinist, who studied in Italy and worked at the St. Petersburg Court Chapel in the Russian Empire. He was one of the first Russian Imperial composers in the 18th century to be recognized throughout Europe and the first to compose an opera, symphony, and violin sonata. Not much is known about Maxim Berezovsky's biography. His birthplace is uncertain, but according to many sources is Glukhov, now in Ukraine. 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. 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. 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 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 Saint Petersburg. He died in Saint Petersburg on 24 March 1777. Berezovsky is known as an author of spiritual 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 D. Bortniansky he created a classical type of choral concerto. The only known instrumental work by Berezovsky is the Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord, written in Pisa in 1772. In the early 2000s, thanks to the efforts of American conductor Stephen Fox, Berezovsky's lost work, Symphony in C, also known in Ukraine as Symphony No. 1, was found in the Vatican archives.