Turning the pages back...

March 22, 1777

This year marks the 220th anniversary of the tragic passing of a man who will remain among Ukraine's pantheon of musicians and composers.

Born on October 16, 1745, in Hlukhiv (about 350 miles northeast of Kyiv), Maksym Berezovsky studied at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and sang in the Russian imperial court choir in St. Petersburg, where he also studied composition.

From 1759 to 1760 Berezovsky performed as a soloist with an Italian opera company in Oranienbaum near the capital. Five years later he was accepted for study under Giovanni Martini in Bologna, Italy, and in 1771 gained the title of "maestro di musica." He also became a member of the Bologna Philharmonic Academy.

While in Italy, he composed the opera "Demofonte," performed in Leghorn in 1773. Other works from that period included a sonata for violin and harpsichord, as well as a series of sacred works (12 concertos and a full cycle of liturgical chants), of which only a few have been preserved.

However, he secured his immortality by way of his most outstanding works - liturgical music for "Otche Nash" (The Lord's Prayer), "Viruiu" (Credo), the concerto "Ne Otverzy Mene Vo Vremia Starosty," (Forsake Me Not in Old Age) and four communion hymns, "Chashu Spasennia" (Chalice of Salvation), "V Pamiat Vichnuiu" (In Eternal Memory), "Tvoriai Anhely Svoia" (Let the Angels Create) and "Vo Vsiu Zemliu" (Over all the Earth). All draw on Ukrainian folk songs and the tradition of Kyivan church singing.

He is known as the first representative of the early classical style in Ukrainian music.

Two years after his return to St. Petersburg in 1775, the illustrious composer was enmeshed in court intrigues. He committed suicide on March 22, 1777.

Source: "Berezovsky, Maksym," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 1 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984).

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 16, 1997, No. 11, Vol. LXV

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