Maksym Sozontovych Berezovs'ky

Maksym Sozontovych Berezovs'ky (Hlukhiv, 1745 – St Petersburg, 1777) was a composer and singer of Ukrainian origin, and one of the figures through which the music of imperial Russia began to take its place on the European map in the eighteenth century. His biography has to be reconstructed from few sources: early biographies and accounts of performances in St Petersburg and Italy. According to these, his musical training began early, perhaps at the choir school in Hlukhiv, which supplied singers to the court in St Petersburg, or at the Kiev Academy.

He reached the Russian capital around 1757, probably in the first half of that year, and entered the service of the court of Peter III as principal singer at the theatre in Oranienbaum. There he performed roles in operas by Francesco Araja and Vincenzo Manfredini. After Catherine the Great came to the throne in 1762, he remained as a court singer, but no longer in leading operatic roles; the reason may have been the breaking of his voice or a change of policy favouring foreign musicians. Towards the early 1760s he extended his study of composition with Francesco Zoppis and then with Galuppi, and around 1766 he was sent to Italy. There he was admitted to the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna in May 1771, and he has been linked with Padre Martini, although the letters that suggest this are not enough to confirm it. His opera seria Demofoonte was staged successfully in Livorno during the carnival of 1773 and was given again in Florence the following November.

Back in St Petersburg in October 1773, despite his Italian successes he was appointed to a modest post in the imperial chapel and never advanced. The reasons proposed are Catherine's preference for Italian musicians, her supposed antipathy towards musicians born in Ukraine, and a style considered not classical enough for the empress's taste. Grigori Potemkin promised him the direction of a music academy he planned in Kremenchuk, but the project never materialised: Berezovs'ky died at the age of 32, in poverty and, according to the sources, probably by suicide. His death gave rise to a literary legend that includes plays, novels and even an allusion in Tarkovsky's film Nostalghia.

Few of his works survive, and much of his choral output has been lost or has been recovered only in recent decades. His sacred music is today an important link between the Baroque of Mykola Dilets'ky and the Classicism of Dmytro Bortnyans'ky, and the choral concerto Ne otverzhi mene vo vremya starosti is a pillar of the Russian and Ukrainian choral repertoire.