Biography
Composer Osip Kozlovsky, also identified by the Polish spelling Józef Kozłowski, emerged as an innovative presence within the musical establishment of the Russian Imperial court.
His birth date and location remain contested: Polish accounts place the event on September 10, 1759, in Warsaw, whereas certain Belarusian sources locate it near Propoysk, today known as Slawrahad, Belarus, suggesting possible Belarusian ancestry. Regardless of origin, an uncle recognized his talent and arranged training at St. John’s Church in Warsaw. From 1773 to 1778 he served as music instructor to the aristocratic Oginsky family. As Russian political sway over Poland intensified and culminated in the full partition of 1795, Kozlovsky relocated to St. Petersburg to pursue professional opportunities. He entered the Russian army as aide-de-camp to a noble commander during the campaign against the Ottoman Empire, where he encountered statesman Grigory Potemkin, adviser to Empress Catherine the Great. Potemkin presented him at court, inaugurating the next chapter of his career.
Kozlovsky maintained ties with St. Petersburg’s Polish circle; when the final Polish monarch, Stanisław II August, approached death, he entrusted Kozlovsky with composing the requiem for his funeral. The work gained wide renown and, in a later revision by the composer himself, was performed again at the funeral of Czar Alexander I, who held titular sovereignty over Poland. Beyond this piece, Kozlovsky produced an extensive catalog: polonaises for piano, the opera Zelmira and Smelon (or the Capture of Izmail), the song Grom pobedy, razdavaysya! that served as Russia’s unofficial anthem in the early nineteenth century, twenty-eight Russian songs, incidental scores for theater, court dance music, and numerous sacred compositions including a Te Deum. Although Russian performers have presented and recorded portions of this output, his contributions to the evolution of Russian classical music remain largely overlooked in the West. He died in St. Petersburg on March 11, 1831. More than twenty of his works have been committed to disc, among them both versions of the Requiem; conductor Hans Graf prepared the original 1798 score for a 2024 recording with the Singapore Symphony.
His birth date and location remain contested: Polish accounts place the event on September 10, 1759, in Warsaw, whereas certain Belarusian sources locate it near Propoysk, today known as Slawrahad, Belarus, suggesting possible Belarusian ancestry. Regardless of origin, an uncle recognized his talent and arranged training at St. John’s Church in Warsaw. From 1773 to 1778 he served as music instructor to the aristocratic Oginsky family. As Russian political sway over Poland intensified and culminated in the full partition of 1795, Kozlovsky relocated to St. Petersburg to pursue professional opportunities. He entered the Russian army as aide-de-camp to a noble commander during the campaign against the Ottoman Empire, where he encountered statesman Grigory Potemkin, adviser to Empress Catherine the Great. Potemkin presented him at court, inaugurating the next chapter of his career.
Kozlovsky maintained ties with St. Petersburg’s Polish circle; when the final Polish monarch, Stanisław II August, approached death, he entrusted Kozlovsky with composing the requiem for his funeral. The work gained wide renown and, in a later revision by the composer himself, was performed again at the funeral of Czar Alexander I, who held titular sovereignty over Poland. Beyond this piece, Kozlovsky produced an extensive catalog: polonaises for piano, the opera Zelmira and Smelon (or the Capture of Izmail), the song Grom pobedy, razdavaysya! that served as Russia’s unofficial anthem in the early nineteenth century, twenty-eight Russian songs, incidental scores for theater, court dance music, and numerous sacred compositions including a Te Deum. Although Russian performers have presented and recorded portions of this output, his contributions to the evolution of Russian classical music remain largely overlooked in the West. He died in St. Petersburg on March 11, 1831. More than twenty of his works have been committed to disc, among them both versions of the Requiem; conductor Hans Graf prepared the original 1798 score for a 2024 recording with the Singapore Symphony.