For their 15th annual Ashkenaz Festival, Harbourfront Centre has scored a coup in attracting the internationally renowned Klezmerata Fiorentina ensemble. In turn, the group's founder and leader, Igor Polesitsky, sounds genuinely excited at the prospect. "I'm really looking forward to it," he told Tandem recently. "This is our Canadian debut, and also our debut at a purely Jewish music event. We normally perform at classical music venues."

Klezmerata Fiorentina bridge the classical and klezmer worlds by presenting a more disciplined side to the klezmer form, one that has generally been viewed as a folk music style. Igor Polesitsky is clearly a man on a mission, dedicated to showing this different side of klezmer.
KF is a group with an intriguing composition. Polesitsky was born and raised in the Ukraine of Russian-Jewish extraction. "I grew up in this musical tradition and started playing this music at six. My family was involved in it in old times, and I always wanted to do something with what I knew."

His two comrades had no such background. Accordionist Francesco Furlanich and bassist Riccardo Donati are Italian classical players who became acquainted with their leader when they all found themselves playing in a leading Italian symphony and opera orchestra, Florence's Orchestra del Maggio Musicale. The trio is often joined by clarinetist Alex Kontorovich, but they'll be performing in Toronto as a trio. "It is fascinating to me how Italian musicians have been able to get into this completely different musical tradition," says Polesitsky.
He studied classical music in Philadelphia, then, he recalls, "I was invited to come to Italy in 1983 as principal violist in Zubin Mehta's orchestra in Florence [Orchestra del Maggio Musicale]. I was invited for a year and I've stayed in Florence since. I was always involved in various aspects of Jewish music, in parallel. I really wanted to bring a different aspect to what is now called klezmer music."

He formed Klezmerata Fiorentina in 2005 with the purpose of developing a concert version of traditional Ukrainian-Jewish instrumental music. They term their style "improvised Klezmer chamber music, which imbues the unique instrumental language, dance rhythms and authentic melodies of the historical klezmorim with a classical complexity of expression, wide dynamic range, and elasticity of tempo."

To Polesitsky, "there are different elements to what is called klezmer. This is not a criticism of what has been happening with it. On the contrary, I'm very happy that in the last 30 years a group of very enthusiastic American guys got involved and it has now spread all over the world in very active klezmer scenes. But I don't see klezmer music as what is considered folk music. You could say this was traditional Jewish classical music. It was done by professionals for centuries. I was interested in investigating those aspects that are harder to hear now. It was music for listening to in old times, before it came to America. I'd say 60 per cent of the pieces were not for dancing but for listening and ceremony. In the Ukraine, there would be concerts within the ambience of a wedding celebration."
The response of the classical audience has been unanimously positive, reports Polesitsky. "Our first ever performance was at the Festival of Martha Ageric in Lugano, Switzerland. It was a very classical audience, and the response was fantastic. It has remained so, even in the very serious places. Just this winter we played in Leningrad with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. That is the temple of Russian classical music. I was a little worried as we walked out onto the stage where Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff played! Our suits had been lost en route, so we walked on in jeans. They are very serious about appearances there so I insisted the audience was told what had happened. Plus it was rare for a subscription concert there to feature what they perceive as folk music, but we got a wonderful reaction. We have played in The Kremlin and in the Italian presidential palace for a RAI concert."
Klezmerata Fiorentina bring a fresh perspective to traditional klezmer compositions, rather than coming up with new material. "The point of any musical activity is the interpretation," says Polesitsky. "We are using the archives for interpretation, trying to imagine how this music can be played for listening, as exhibition pieces, as stories for the listener."