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1. Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine
Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine founded in 1913, based on the
Music College, directed by V. Pukhalskyi, talented organizer and schoolmaster. It worth
mentioning that in 1919 Kyiv Conservatory became a state educational institution. The first directors were V.Puchalsky (1913) and R. Glier (1914-1920). In 1940 the Conservatory was
named after P. Tchaikovsky and in 1995 by the decree of the President of Ukraine is called
the Ukrainian National Music Academy. Today it is proud of its main scientific and
performing famous school.
The Academy provides all-round general education and high level of professional
training. Besides special, historical and theoretical musical subjects the students take courses
in art criticism, philosophy and foreign languages. Foreigners are offered the same curricula.
Today it is the largest music school and research center in Ukraine. The Academy
provides all conditions for students to obtain the complete higher education in the field of
musical arts. The best musical compositions, a library with study materials, concerts hall and
musical instruments are available. Students are actively involved in concert and creative
activities as well as in international projects.
Among the founding fathers were Anton Rubinstein, Alexander Glazunov (he
supported the idea of reorganizing the music college as a conservatory), Sergei Rachmaninoff
(he praised the music education process in Kyiv), Volodymyr Pukhalsky (the college
manager, pianist and composer who kept sending petitions to the Russian government about
the reorganization), Kyiv City Duma that helped the process, and certainly local patrons of the
arts, among them Mykhailo Tereshchenko, who donated 50,000 rubles for the national
conservatory project.
Over the past hundred years, Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine has
turned into one of the world’s most prestigious education centers in the field. Among its
graduates are internationally acclaimed musicians, singers, and conductors, such as Vladimir
Horowitz, Heinrich Neuhaus, Ivan Kozlovsky, Yevhenia Miroshnychenko, Anatolii
Solovianenko, Natan Rakhlin, Stefan Turchak, Kirilo Karabits, Luidmyla Monastirska,
Dlamala; composers Levko Revutsky, Borys Liatoshynsky, Valentyn Sylvestrov and Ivan
Karabits.
Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine has four departments: history and
theory of music and composition; piano; vocal music and conducting with the division of
orchestra and choir conducting and orchestra department with the division of folk, wind,
violin and string instruments.There are also about 27 chairs, courses for the advanced
training of young performers.
The Academy provides the post-graduate and assistant-probation courses. It has the
close cooperation with many foreign music institutions and cultural centers. Each day, the
National Music Academy’s Big and Small halls accommodate concerts of the Academy’s
Outstanding Graduates, Professor and Pupil, Academy Guest, World Opera Masterpieces,
Unforgettable Names, New Ukrainian Pianists Generation and Master and School series.
2. Myroslav Skoryk ( Lviv, 1938)
Myroslav Skoryk, the prominent Ukrainian composer, Hero of Ukraine, full knight
«Order of Merit», People's Artist of Ukraine, winner of the Shevchenko National Prize,
artistic director of the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, was bom on
13 July 1938 in Lviv. He entered the Lviv Music School in 1945, but two years later both he
and his parents were deported to Siberia and were not allowed to return home until 1955.
He was subsequently accepted at Lviv Conservatory, where he studied composition
with Stanyslav Liudkevych, Roman Simovych and Adam Soltys. During 1960-64 he studied
at the Moscow Conservatory, taking the doctoral course with Dmitri Kabalevsky, and upon
graduation joined the faculty of the Lviv Conservatory then, in 1967, that of the Kiev
Conservatory.
Following the death of Borys Lyatoshynsky in 1968, he became one of Ukraine’s most
notable professors of composition—his students are such prominent figures as Yevhen
Stankovych, Ivan Karabyts, Oleh Kyva, Vadim Ilyin and Osvaldas Balakauskas. He holds the
chair in composition at the Lysenko Music Academy in Lviv, and teaches composition at the
National Music Academy in Kiev. In 1968 he was selected as the secretary of the Ukrainian
Union of Composers then, in 1988,_he became head of the Lviv branch of this organization.
Since 1999 he has been heading the chair of history of Ukrainian music at Tchaikovsky
National Music Academy of Ukraine.
In spring 2011 he became artistic director of the National Opera in Kiev. He currently
resides in Ukraine, though he travels frequently to perform and lecture in Europe, the United
States and Canada.
Skoryk found great interest in the music of Ravel, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Bartok.
Over the years, these composers influenced Skoryk’s compositional style. Many of Skoryk’s
compositions have a strong connection with national folklore. Elements of the Ukrainian folk
style in Skoryk’s music are rooted in his years as a child and later as a student at Lviv
Conservatoire, which preserved cultural traditions that were formed historically in the 1920s
and 30s of the twentieth century.
Composer's heritage contains a variety of music genres: opera «Moses», ballets
«Minerva», «Return of Butterfly», «Caprice»; instrumental concertos for orchestra, cello and
orchestra, three piano concertos and nine violin, viola concertos; works for symphony and
chamber orchestras; a variety of ensembles, piano compositions, including seven partita’s for
different instrumental cast; vocal, pop and jazz compositions; music for theater, movies and
cartoons. Cooperation with famous film directors (including S. Parajanov in the cult film
«Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors») proved very effective national color and composer's
technique.
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Both the Cello Concerto and the-Seventh Violin Concerto combine bittersweet
lyricism with explosive dynamic contrasts. With its swinging rhythms and folk-music
pungency the Carpathian Concerto is one of Skoryk’s most engaging and popular works. The
pensive Melody for strings propelled him to the forefront of Ukrainian music, while the
slapstick in his transcription of Paganini’s Caprice No. 19 reveals the composer’s humorous
side.
Compositions by Myroslav Skoryk are the treasury of Ukrainian music, and are
popular not only in Ukraine, but also abroad. His music is often performed by distinguished
musicians from Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Poland, Great Britain, USA, Canada and Australia. He often conducts and plays his
own compositions.
3. Valentyn Sylvestrov (Kyiv, 1937)
Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, now pushing 80 years old, has led a long and
prolific career traversing a wide range of musical styles. Sylvestrov began private music
lessons at age 15. His father was an engineer and his monher a teacher. He studied piano at
the Kiev Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958, then at the Kiev Conservatory from
1958-1964. He studied composition with Borys Liatoshynsky and counterpoint with Lev
Revutskyat the Kyiv Conservatory (1958-64). He received versatile education. Working in
a modernist style, he quickly established a reputation as one of several innovative musicians
of the ‘Kyiv Avant-Garde.’ In 1961 he has composed his first full-scale work "Five Pieces for
Piano". In many of his works he adopted dodecaphonist avant-garde techniques, at the same
time retaining a characteristically lyrical expression. Starting in the 1970s he employed
polystylistic methods in which tonality, atonality, modality, texture, and audiovisual elements
enter into dialogue with each other, forming broadly based dramatic compositions.
Sylvestrov's music was criticized in the Soviet press in the 1960s and 1970s and he
was temporarily excluded from the Composers’ Union of Ukraine. His works were rarely
performed in Ukraine, but they have aroused great acclaim abroad. His Symphony No. 2 has
attracted attention of the music critics.-Sylvestrov soon started developing an international
reputation, winning the prestigious International Koussevitsky Prize (USA, 1967) and the
International Young Composers' Competition Gaudeamus (Holland, 1970). Some of his
compositions had their world premieres at European festivals of modem music or at
performances. Sylvestrov is best known for his post-modem music style. He said: "I do not
write new music. My music is a response to an echo of what already exists".
In the 1970s, with his String Quartet No. 1 and the cycle of art songs entitled Tykhi
pisni (Quiet Songs), Sylvestrov moved away from the conventional techniques of the
Western avant-garde and developed a slow-moving, tonally-rooted musical language with a
deep sense of mysticism. He later developed a style, somewhat akin to Western postmodernism, which he termed ‘metamusic’ (short for ‘metaphorical music’). Despite his
success he abandoned himself to a long reflection about the past and all things which escape
the time.
Sylvestrov's heritage includes seven symphonies (1963, 1965, 1966, 1976, 1980-2.
1994-5, 2002-3); the symphonic works Classic Overture (1964), Hymn (1967), and Poem (in
memory of Borys Liatoshynsky, 1968); Spectrum (1965), Intermezzo (1983),
and Hymn (2001) for chamber orchestra; Serenade (1978), Elegy (2000-2), and Farewell
Serenade (2003) for string orchestra (1978); Postludium, a symphonic poem for piano
and orchestra (1984); Meditation for cello and chamber orchestra (1972); Mysteries for alto
flute and percussion (1964); Projections for harpsichord, vibraphone, and bells
(1965); Sonata for violin and piano (1970); Postludium for cello and piano (1982); Drama for
violin, cello, and piano (1971), and numerous other works of chamber music; Children's
Music (1973); liturgical hymns; and cantatas and art songs to texts by Taras Shevchenko,
Mikhail Lermontov, Aleksandr Pushkin, John Keats, and others. He has also
scored film music.
In 2011 a book Dochekatysia muzyky (To Await the Music), based on a series of his
public lectures and concerts, was published in Kyiv.
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4. Ivan Karabits (Donetsk region,1945 - Kyiv, 2002)
The figure of Ivan Karabits is very special in the Ukrainian culture; he is a leading
composer, conductor and personality that made a huge contribution to the development of the
independent Ukraine.
Ivan Fedorovych Karabits was bom in Yalta, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on 17
January 1945. He studied at the Kiev Conservatory with Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895-1963),
and after his death with Myroslav Skoryk (bom 1938). Following Ukraine’s independence
from Russia in 1991, Karabits became the leading musical and public figure in the country.
He founded Ukraine’s major contemporary music festival, the Kiev Music Fest, and was its
artistic director until his death; as Professor of Composition at the Kiev Tchaikovsky Music
Academy he inspired a new generation of Ukrainian composers; he was the artistic director of
the Kiev Camerata and also conducted modem Ukrainian music; he was also one of the
founders of the International Foundation in memory of Vladimir Horowitz, and head of the
jury of its International Competition for Young Pianists. The award of Peoples’ Artist of the
Ukraine was given reflecting his achievements. Karabits’s personal style follows the tradition
of Mahler and Shostakovich, and is also rooted in the folkmusic tradition of Ukraine.
The music heritage of Ivan Karabits, one of Ukraine’s XX-th century leading
composers, represents a number of stages, vocal, symphonic and chamber works, his musical
language has deep roots in Ukrainian and Slavonic symphonic and folk tradition of past
centuries and has left a deep influence on various generations of Ukrainian composers of the
second half of XX-th century. He died in Kiev on 20 January 2002.
Ivan Karabits has played a major part in the history of Ukraine by introducing
Ukrainian music and arts to the world. He has presented Ukraine as a country of the great
cultural tradition and artistic potential. Ivan Karabits is associated with International Music
Festival “Kyiv Music Fest,” which he founded in 1990 and steered till the last days of his life.
In 1995, Karabits has co-founded the International Charity Fund in Memory of Volodymyr
Horowitz, the classical virtuoso pianist and composer. Karabits also started the International
Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Horowitz. He was the chairman of its jury.
The composer used to say that each year he is cultivating two fields: “Kyiv Music
Fest” and Horowitz’s competition. Both events became deeply rooted in his life. They
allowed him staying on top of musical performance and watch a cluster of bright young
artists, including those from Ukraine.
He was thrilled seeing cultural exchanges taking place. It was one of his greatest
dreams to make Ukraine known all over the world. Karabits was also a talented art manager.
Apart from generating ideas to inspire our cultural growth, he could also skillfully put them to
life. He has managed to break through the decades of stereotypes suggesting new art forms
and models needed to organize the concert life. Karabits was not offended when his ideas
were copied by other music fests across Ukraine. On the contrary, he was happy to share the
initiatives.
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Now, when Ukrainian art is craving to conquer the international culture scene, we
really need talented managers like Ivan Karabits. The composer was ahead of his time
recognizing modem tendencies of the 21st century and transforming them into his present. An
unparallel pioneer and a genius visionary, he excelled in modernizing the technical side of
arts.
Karabits was also an outstanding teacher. He raised a constellation of bright young
artists at the National Music Academy of Ukraine and continued training them even when
they left school. Six years after he died, a concert has been organized, where his students
played chamber music in his memory. Among them were Anatoly Honcharov, Artem
Roshchenko, Vadym Rakochi, Olena Ilnytska, Andry Bondarenko and Nazary Yaremchuk.
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Inspired by Karabits’ professionalism, this group of young, talented and promising musicians
didn’t quit artistic careers and continue writing music, organizing concerts and festivals,
teaching and passing knowledge and experience to the next generation of musicians.
5. Boris Lyatoshinsky (Zhytomyr, 1895- Kyiv, 1968)
Boris Lyatoshinsky was one of the most highly regarded and influential Ukrainian
composers of the 20th century. He was a leading member of the new generation of twentieth
century Ukrainian composers and is today honoured as the father of contemporary Ukrainian
music. He was awarded a number of titles, including the honorary title of People's Artist.
Boris Lyatoshinsky was bom in 1895 in Zhytomyr. This town is well known for its
cultural life. Several well-known people were from here, including the pianist Svyatoslav
Richter, philosopher Nikolai Berdiaev and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski. His father,
Mykola Lyatoshynsky, was a history teacher and scientist in historical studies. He was also
the director of various gymnasiums in Zhytomyr, Nemyriv, and Zlatopol. Lyatoshynsky's
mother played the piano and sang.
Arriving in Kiev from his native city of Zhitomir in 1914, Lyatoshynsky enrolled in
the law School of Kiev University, while continuing his musical studies at the new Kiev
Conservatory in the composition class of Reinhold Gliere, with whom he was to continue a
life-long relationship.
Having completed his law studies in 1918, he graduated in 1919 from the
Conservatory, where he was soon to take up a position as a teacher and later professor. From
1935 to 1938 and from 1941 to 1944 he taught concurrently at the Moscow Conservatory.
Boris Lyatoshynsky showed himself as versatile man of art and his heritage is very
rich. As a composer he wrote a variety of works, including five symphonies, symphonic
poems and other shorter orchestral works, choral and vocal music, two operas, chamber music
and a number of works for solo piano.
Boris Lyatoshynsky's life and work had covered a complex and tragic evolution. More
than 50 years there are between his first work (1915) and his last one (1968). His generation
went through First World War, the October Revolution, the Civil War, the tragic thirties years
then the Second World War.
His earliest compositions were romantic and lyrical in style, influenced most of all by
his esteem for the music of Schumann and Borodin. By the time of his Symphony No. 1, his
graduation composition, he had begun to be influenced by the impressionist music of
Scriabin, but with his Piano Sonata No. 1 of 1924, he finally turned away from tradition,
moving towards the new musical language of Central and Western Europe, atonality. His
music language is bright, expressive, but sometimes very difficult.
This period lasted until 1929, when there gradually appeared more and more evidence
of simplification in harmonies. Boris Lyatoshynsky was the foremost Ukrainian composer of
the twentieth century and his five symphonies are the cornerstone of the symphonic music of
his country. The Fourth Symphony of 1963 met with immediate acclaim for its imaginative
orchestration
^ while the Fifth Symphony is memorable for its use of Ukrainian folkloric
material. The interest to his works grows from year to year not only in our country but all over
the world.
6. Mykola Leontovych (Monastvrok, 1877-Tulchin,1921)
Mykola Leontovych was bom on December 13 1877 inthe Monastyrok community in
the Podillya. ffis father was a village priest, skilled at playing cello, violin, and guitar,
conductor of a school choir. Leontovych received his first musical lessons from him.
In 1887, Leontovych was admitted to Nemyriv gymnasium. Later due to financial
problems, his father transferred him to the Sharhorod Spiritual Beginners School, where
pupils were financially supported. At the school, Leontovych mastered singing, and was able
to read difficult passages from religious choral texts.
From 1892 until 1899, Mykola Leontovych attended the theological
seminary in Kamianets-Podilskyi, where he sang in choir, began to study Ukrainian music,
and began his first attempts at choral arranging.
In the spring of 1904, he left the Podillya and moved to the Donbas region in eastern
Ukraine, where he became a teacher of voice and music in a school for children of railroad
workers. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, Leontovych organized a choir of workers
that performed in meetings. Leontovych's activity caught the attention of local authorities, and
he was forced to move back to the city of Tulchyn, where he taught music and voice at the
Tulchyn Eparchy Women's college to the daughters of village priests. Leontovych further
pursued his musical education in Saint Petersburg, where he earned his credentials as a
choirmaster of church choruses. From 1909, he studied under famous musical
theoretic Boleslav Yavorsky, whom he periodically visited in Moscow and Kyiv.
During that time, he created numerous choral arrangements, namely Shchedryk, but
also «Піють півні», "The Cocks are singing", «Мала мати одну дочку» "Mather had one
daughter", «Дударик», «Ой зійшла зоря» "The dawn was ascended" and others. In Tulchyn,
he met the composer Kyrylo Stetsenko. In 1916, with the choir of the Kyiv University he
performed his arrangement of Shchedryk, which brought him great success from the public
in Kyiv. In 1918, at a period of short-lived Ukrainian independence, Leontovych began
teaching at the Kiev Conservatory as well as the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and
Drama.
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During the night of January 22-23, 1921, Mykola Leontovych
was murdered by Chekist agent Victor Grishchenko at the home of his parents.
Mykola Leontovych's is remembered today mostly because of the body of musical
works he left behind, including over 150 choral compositions: artistic arrangements of folk
songs, religious works (including his liturgy), cantatas, and choral compositions set to the
texts of various Ukrainian poets.
Leontovych also started work on a Ukrainian opera (Na rusalchyn velykden’ - On the
Water Nymph's Easter) based on the writing ofBorys Hrinchenko, however, he did not
complete it. The opera was completed by composer Myroslav Skoryk in 1978.
Leontovych had a very artistic and original style of composing. His choral
compositions enrich harmony, vocal polyphony, and imitation. The structure of his choral
compositions and arrangements of folk songs became much more strongly related to the text.
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7. Mykola Lysenko (Kremenchuk, 1842- Kyiv, 1912)
Mykola Lysenko is Ukrainian composer, conductor, pianist and musicologist. He was
bom in 1842 in Kremenchuk, in the Poltava region. From childhood he became very
interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and by the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.
When Shevchenko's body was brought to Ukraine after his death in 1861, Lysenko was
a pallbearer. During his time at Kiev University, Lysenko collected and arranged Ukrainian
folksongs, which were published in seven volumes. One of his principal sources was
the kobzar Ostap Veresai (after whom Lysenko later named his son).
Having earned a scholarship from the Russian Music Society, Lysenko studied music
at the Leipzig Conservatory in Germany, and it was there that he came to the realization that it
was important to document and develop Ukrainian music. His insistence on creating
Ukrainian music was not well accepted by the Russian Music Society that had granted his
scholarship. Pyotr Tchaikovsky reportedly showed an interest in staging Taras
Bulba in Moscow, but upon Lysenko's refusal to allow the opera to be translated into Russian,
the performance did not take place.
Mykola Lysenko contributed to Ukraine's culture through his musical studies,
including the study of Ukrainian folk instruments. At that time Lysenko was in the centre of
Ukrainian cultural and musical life. He gave piano concerts about Ukraine. His musical
compositions were numerous and varied. His works include “Natalka- Poltavka”, “Taras
Bulba” and operas for children. Lysenko wrote many compositions for the piano and the
violin. Lysenko was the founder of the national movement in music. He developed the
Ukrainian musical culture. Settings of words by Taras Shevchenko occupy a special
place in Lysenko's works. The settings include solo art songs, choral works, and
cantatas for choir and orchestra, such as Raduisia nyvo nepolytaia (Rejoice, Unwatered
Field), Biut’ porohy (The Rapids Roar), Reve ta stohne Dnipr shyrokyi (The Mighty
Dnieper Roars and Bellows), Sadok vyshnevyi kolo khaty (The Cherry Orchard by the
House), andlVa vichnu pamiat’ Kotliarevs’komu (To the Eternal Memory of
Kotliarevsky). Shevchenko's collection Kobzar particularly fascinated Lysenko, who
composed music for 82 of its texts.
Over his lifetime Lysenko arranged about 500 folk songs, including both solos
and choruses with piano accompaniment, and a cappella choruses. Lysenko
influenced a large group of Ukrainian composers, including Kyrylo Stetsenko, Mykola
Leontovych, Yakiv Stepovy, Oleksander Koshyts, Stanyslav Liudkevych, Lev
Revutsky, and Mykhailo Verykivsky. A compilation of Lysenko's works was published
in 20 volumes in Kyiv in 1950-59.
In his later years, Lysenko raised funds to open a Ukrainian School of Music. His
death was widely mourned throughout Ukraine. Lysenko's daughter Mariana followed her
father's footsteps as a pianist, and his son Ostap also taught music in Kiev.
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8. Dmitro Bortnyansky (Glukhov, 1751 - St. Petersburg, 1825)
Dmitro Bortnyansky was bom in 1751 in Glukhov, he received his musical education
in the Preparatory Musical School in Glukhov, then, from the age of seven, at the Imperial
Court Chapel in St. Petersburg.
An influential figure in Ukrainian music, Dmitro Bortnyansky was primarily known
for his sacred choral concertos and multi-movement a cappella compositions that both struck
out new paths for various combinations of tutti and solo voices and helped to Westernize the
Eastern Slavonic tradition. He also wrote many hymns, which, like his choral concertos,
gained wide currency throughout late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Europe. Among
his better-known works are Vskuyu priskorbna yesi, dusha moya? (Why are you mournful, O
my soul?) and КоГ slaven nash Hospod (How great is our Lord). Bortnyansky wrote 55
surviving choral concertos (at least 23 others are lost), and also composed operas, keyboard
sonatas, and chamber works.
His first music training took place in his hometown, at the Hlukhiv choir school. In
1758 he was taken into the Russian Imperial Court chapel at St. Petersburg, and later sang in
operas at Court productions. He studied with Galuppi during his teen years and continued
instruction with the Italian master in Venice, when Galuppi returned there in L769. By
1778 Bortnyansky had written three operas — Creonte (1776), Alcide (1778), and Quinto
Fabio (1778), as well as various settings of Roman Catholic texts.
He returned to Russia in 1779 and in 1783 was appointed Kappelmeister at the lower
Court of Catherine the Great's son, Paul. He also taught keyboard to members of the royal
family during this period. Bortnyansky's first choral concertos date to 1780.
In 1896 Bortnyansky was appointed director of the Court chapel by Tsar Paul I, who
had ascended to the throne after the death of his mother, that year. Bortnyansky expanded the
Court chapel choir and improved conditions for the singers. His choral concerts quickly
became one of the main musical attractions in St. Petersburg. But he composed relatively little
original music from this time onward.
In 1816 a government decree gave Bortnyansky and the Court chapel musicians the
exclusive right to publish sacred music in Russia. The modest Bortnyansky, however,
eschewed any attempts at opportunism by not immediately seeking to publish his choral
concertos. He did revise many, but they would only gain posthumous publication in the
1830s.
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9. Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky (Glukhov, 1745- StPetersburg, 1777)
Maksym Sozontovych Berezovsky was an Ukrainian composer, opera singer,
and violinist. "Ukrainian Mozart" Berezovsky is one of the most outstanding composers of the
XYIII century and one of the greatest mysteries in the history of Ukrainian music.
Berezovsky was the first Ukrainian composer to be recognized in Europe and the first
to compose an opera, symphony, and violin sonata. His most popular works are his sacred
choral pieces written for the Orthodox Church. Much of his work has been lost; only three of
the 18 known choral concertos have been found. Dmitry Bortniansky was thought to be the
first Ukrainian symphonic composer until the discovery in 2002 of Berezovsky's Symphony
in C by Steven Fox in the Vatican archives, composed around 1770-1772.
He is a prominent composer, one of the creators of the Ukrainian choral style in
sacred music. Berezovsky studied at the Kyivan Mohyla Academy and sang in the
court choir in Saint Petersburg, where he also studied composition under Francesco
Zoppis. From 1759 to 1760 he performed as soloist with the Italian opera company in
Oranienbaum near Saint Petersburg. From 1765 to 1774 he studied in Bologna, Italy,
under Giovanni Battista Martini, and in 1771 gained the title of maestro di musica and
became a member of the Bologna Philharmonic Academy. In 1775 he returned to Saint
Petersburg, where, as a result of court intrigues and difficult circumstances, he
committed suicide.
Berezovsky was the first representative of the early Classicist style in
Ukrainian music. He was the composer of the opera Demofonte, which was staged in
Leghorn, Italy, in 1773; of a sonata for violin and harpsichord; and of a series of sacred
works (12 concertos and a full cycle of liturgical chants), of which only a few have
been preserved. His recently discovered Symphony No. 11 is the first symphonic work
written by a composer from the Russian Empire and serves as evidence of a
considerable number of Berezovsky’s other instrumental compositions that have been
lost. His most outstanding choral works are the concerto Ne otverzhy mene vo vremia
starosty (Do Not Repudate Me in My Old Age), model of choir cyclic concert,
liturgical music for ‘Otche nash’ (Lord's Prayer) and ‘Viruiu’ (Credo), and four
communion hymns—‘Chashu spaseniia’ (Chalice of Salvation), ‘V pamiat' vichnuiu’
(In Eternal Memory), ‘Tvoriai anhely svoia’ (Let the Angels Create), and ‘Vo vsiu
zemliu’ (Over All the Land)— which are musically related to Ukrainian folk songs and
to the tradition of Kyivan church singing.
Circumstances did not allow exposing his mighty talent completely, he died at
the age of 32, in the prime of his life. Most of the facts of his biography are unknown.
There is not even an authentic image of composer. His 250th anniversary was
extensively marked in Ukraine in 1995. There were numerous concerts and monument
solemnly opened in Hlukhiv.
Andrei Tarkovsky's use of Berezovsky's music in the film "Nostalgia" was a striking
example of the contemporary rediscovery of his art.
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10. Benjamin Britten (England, 1913 - Aldeburgh, 1976)
Benjamin Britten was bom in England on November 22, 1913. He was an English
composer, conductor and pianist whose name has gone down in history as one of the best
musicians of the past century. His music had a freshness and identity.
His father was a dentist and his mother was an amateur musician. She was Benjamin’s
first teacher and gave him his first piano lessons. His first piano lessons with a teacher were at
the age of seven.
In 1930, Britten joined the Royal College of Music where he studied composition
under John Ireland and piano under Arthur Benjamin. He studied there until 1933. It was
during this period that he met composers from the continent like Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler,
and Dmitry Shostakovich. Britten was hugely influenced by Stravinsky. The compositions
from this period were“A Hymn to the Virgin" and “A Boy was Born".
Britten’s father’s death meant that he had to come up with his own source of income.
To this purpose, he started composing music for television documentaries and films. During
his earliest works for the BBC, he came in contact with W.H. Auden (his librettist) with
whom he has worked for long time. It was also during one such project with the BBC in 1937
that he came in contact with Peter Pears. Pears, becaming his music collaborator, was a tenor
for whom Britten wrote most of his solo music. In the same year, he composed his
"Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge". This work brought him an international acclaim.
Britten was against war of all kinds. Following his role as a pacifist during the Second
World War, he decided to move to America with Auden and Pears in 1939. While in America,
he composed “The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo”, his first song cycle for Pears. He also
wrote his first music drama, “Paul Bunyan”. A growing disillusionment in America forced
Britten to rethink about his settlement in England. He and Pears moved back to England in
1942.
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Back in England, Britten’s reputation started burgeoning with works like “Hymns to
St. Cecilia”, “Peter Grimes” being huge successes. Due to the uneasy relationships at the
musical scene in London, he created the English Opera Group in 1947. He established the
Aldeburgh Festival in 1948 where he performed his works. The festival went on becoming so
huge that it attracted performers from all over the world.
Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, Britten came up with many works that were
tremendous successes. The operas “Billy Budd” and ‘‘The Turn of the Screw”,the ballet “The
Prince of the Pagodas” were notable works of the 1950’s. He continued to produce a great
deal of works of greatness in the 1960’s, among them such compositions as “Let’s Make an
Opera” for young people, “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” including “War
Requiem” in 1962. Other notable work of this period is “The Prodigal Son”. It was also in
this decade, in 1965, that he was honored by his appointment to the Order of Merit. What was
written in the press is applied to all his works: “He has found a right symbol for every
situation, and every page bears evidence of distinction and originality”.
The last decade of his life, the 1970’s, saw his health deteriorating. He accepted Title
Peerage in 1976, and became Baron Britten. Only months later, he died of heart failure at his
home in Aldeburgh.
Legacy:
Benjamin Britten composed and experimented with many genres but he will always be
remembered most for his operas. His operas are so successful that he still remains the most
performed of all composers bom after 1900. His choral works continue to be performed, as
his songs for children. His conduction techniques were also of the highest order. The works he
produced have elevated him to a level where some critics even call him a genius.
Ї»
11. Edward Elgar (Broadheath, 1857- Worcester, 1934)
Edward Elgar was an English composer, who received international recognition for his
classical compositions. English composer whose works in the orchestral forms of late 19thcentury Romanticism are characterized by bold tunes, striking colour effects and mastery.
They stimulated a renaissance of English music. His most famous orchestral works include
the Enigma Variations «Варіації на загадкову тему», the Pomp and Circumstances Marches
«Урочисті і церемоніальні марші» (including Land of Hope and Glory), concertos for
violin, and choral works such as The Dream of Gerontius (Сон Геронтія).
Edward Elgar was bom in 1857, in England. His father worked as a piano tuner, and
he was able to teach himself the history of music, that complemented music lessons in the
piano and violin of his son.
His family was poor, and at the age of 15, he started working in a solicitor’s office
before later becoming a music teacher (of piano and violin). He became a noted local
violinist, playing in the Worcester and Birmingham festivals. Playing in a wind quartet he
began arranging the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Handel; he gained a strong musical
reputation within the local area, but it was not enough to make a comfortable living.
He was a keen cyclist and would enjoy cycling on his own into the countryside of
Worcestershire. Elgar said that his trips into nature inspired much of his music. By inclination
he was a natural musician of great invention.
In 1889, he married Alice Roberts, her support both musically, emotional and
financially played a significant role in the career of Elgar.
In 1899, at the age of 42, Elgar finally achieved a big musical breakthrough, with his
first major orchestral work, the Enigma Variations. It was received with great critical acclaim
and established Elgar as the prominent composer of his generation.
He also branched out into choral works, and his- The Dream of Gerontius is regarded
as one of the greatest English choral pieces of all time. Elgar achieved even greater national
recognition for his later Pomp and Circumstance Marches, which he composed between 1901
and 1930.
To mark the coronation of King Edward VII, Elgar composed Land of Hope and Glory
as a powerful finale to the Coronation Ode. It is one of the nation’s most popular pieces and is
considered as an unofficial national anthem. Following on from this triumph he was awarded
a knighthood and special royal audiences.
Elgar’s reputation abroad was high. His work was very well received in Germany and
Central Europe. He also made successful tours of the US.
Other great works include: Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 (1908), the Violin Concerto in В
minor (1910) was commissioned by Fritz Kreisler, one of the leading international violinists
of the time, Symphony No. 2 (1911).
In the early 1930s, there was a revival of interest in Elgar’s music. The BBC organized
a festival of his works to celebrate his 75th birthday. Towards the end of his life, Elgar
achieved his lifelong ambition to be recognized as a great composer's. His Land of Hope and
Glory is always the grand finale to the BBC Proms series of classical music.
The first English composer of international stature since Henry Purcell (1659-95),
Elgar liberated his country’s music from its insularity. He left to younger composers the rich
harmonic resources of late Romanticism and stimulated the subsequent national school of
English music. His own idiom was cosmopolitan, yet his interest in the oratorio is grounded
in the English musical tradition. Especially in England, Elgar is esteemed both for his own
music and for his role in heralding the 20th-century English musical renascence. Elgar died on
23 February 1934.
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12. Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Votkinsk, 1840 - St. Petersburg, 1893)
Pyotr (Peter) Ilyich Tchaikovsky was bom in 1840, in Votkinsk. He was the second of
six children (five brothers and one sister). His father, was a mining business executive in
Votkinsk. His father's ancestors were from Ukraine and Poland. His motherbAleksandra
Assier, was of Russian and French ancestry. Tchaikovsky played piano since the age of 5, he
also enjoyed his mother's playing and singing. He was a sensitive and emotional child.
Tchaikovsky was the author of some of the most popular themes in classical music.
Although Tchaikovsky made outstanding contributions to the symphonic and operatic
repertoires, the music-lovers know Tchaikovsky for his ballets: “Sleeping Beauty”, “Swan
Lake”, and “The Nutcracker”, three of the most popular ballets of all time. Both “Swan
Lak”e and “Sleeping Beaut”y, as well as part o f “The Nutcracker”, were staged by Marius
Petipa, who had studied ballet in his native France before emigration to Russia. By uniting
lyricism with technical difficulty, Tchaikovsky and Petipa transformed the world of classical
dance.
Tchaikovsky was bom into a family of five brothers and one sister. He began taking
piano lessons at the age of four and showed remarkable talent, eventually surpassing his own
teacher's abilities. By the age of nine, he was sent to St. Petersburg to study at the School of
Jurisprudence. The loss of his mother in 1854 dealt a crushing blow to the
young Tchaikovsky. In 1859, he took a position in the Ministry of Justice, but longed for a
career in music, attending concerts and operas at every opportunity. Lately he has started
studying the harmony with Zaremba in 1861, and entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory the
following year, studying composition with Anton Rubinstein.
In September of 1865, Nikolay Rubinstein, the brother of Anton, came to St.
Petersburg to recruit a theory teacher for the soon opened Moscow Conservatory. Anton
Rubinstein recommended Tchaikovsky for the position. Tchaikovsky accepted the post at the
conservatory and in January of 1866 moved to Moscow where he has lived for the following
five years, teaching at the conservatory, and participating in cultural activities.
Tchaikovsky made some very significant friends while working in Moscow. First and
foremost was Nikolay Rubinstein, who was a prominent figure in the Moscow music scene.
Through Nikolay, Tchaikovsky was introduced to the publisher Pyotr Jurgenson, who became
his principal publisher and source of steady income. Nikolay Kashkin was another notable
figure with whom Tchaikovsky became friends; he was a music critic and one of his ardent
supporters.
In Moscow Tchaikovsky enjoyed success. By 1866 he had completed his "Symphony ,
in G minor” and by 1868 he had completed the opera“The Voyevoda”. He was a social
celebrity. Other works were appearing during this time, as well, including the “First String
Quartet” (1871), “The Second Symphony” (1873), and the ballet “Swan Lake” (1875).
In 1876, Tchaikovsky traveled to Paris with his brother, Modest, and then visited
Bayreuth, where he met Liszt. By 1877, Tchaikovsky had been an established composer. This
was the year of “Swan Lake”’s premiere and the time he began work on “The Fourth
Symphony” (1877-1878).
Further travels abroad came in the 1880s with a spate of successful compositions,
including “The Serenade for Strings” (1881), “1812 Overture” (1882), and “The Fifth
Symphony” (1888). In both 1888 and 1889, Tchaikovsky went on successful European tours
as a conductor, meeting Brahms, Grieg, Dvoijak, Gounod, and other notable musical figures.
“Sleeping Beauty” was premiered in 1890, and “The Nutcracker” in 1892, both with success.
In 1892 he heard Gustav Mahler conducting his opera 'Eugene Onegin' in Hamburg.
Throughout Tchaikovsky's last years, he was continually plagued by anxiety and
depression. Tchaikovsky wrote his Sixth Symphony "Pathetique" in 1893, and it was
! Г
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successfully premiered in October, that year. The composer died ten days later of cholera, or -
- as some now contend
— from drinking poison in accordance with a death sentence conferred
on him by his classmates from the School of Jurisprudence.