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     The creative work of Maxim Berezovsky (1745-1777), one of the most outstanding composers of the 18th century, is one of the greatest mysteries in Ukrainian Music.  Being a brilliant opera singer and violinist, he attained the most fundamental music education for the time.  Consequently, his talent was recognized all over Europe.  His operas were staged at prestigious Italian theatres and his instrumental and choral works were executed by the best European musicians. His compositions for choir brought him the widest fame.  They became the bridge, which joined the highest professionalism of the West-European composers' school with the native tradition of singing a cappella.  His famous choir concert "Do Not Repudiate Me in my Old Age" became a model - greatly influencing Bortnyansky, Vedel and other composers of the 19th-20th centuries.  Berezovsky studied with W. A. Mozart at the Bologne Philharmonic Academy.  Circumstances did not allow his mighty talent to be completely exposed, for he died when he was only 32.  Most facts of the composer's biography are unknown.  The creative activities of Berezovsky also remain a mystery; only a small part of his musical works have been found to the date.

     His most well-known concert "Do Not Repudiate Me..." became a classic long ago and exists now in numerous interpretations.  Some of the less known works are recorded on this compact-disk: cycles of liturgies and sacramental verses, most of which were written in Italy, as well as one of his early choral concerts "Let the Lord Enthrone".

     The chamber choir of the Ukrainian music "Vidrogennia" was organized in 1985, when its future conductor M. Yurchenko discovered Berezovsky's choir cycles.  The idea appeared to organize a company which would revive the Ukrainian choir classics.  During this period, the chamber choir - under the guidance of Mstyslav Yurchenko - recorded more than two- hundred previously unknown works of Ukrainian composers. The choir popularized the music in Ukraine and during its tours in Poland and Italy.  In 1993 "Vidrogennia" won the Grand-Prix and the Gold Medal at the International Choir Competitions in Varna (Bulgaria).

©2003 Evgeni Kostitsyn

Chamber Choir of the Ukrainian music "Vidrogennia"
M. Yurchenko, conductor

Cover Painting, The Last Supper by the Master of Perea (15th Century)
Cover design by Evgeni Kostitsyn