Of a World That Is No More revives klezmer as living language, turning memory, joy, loss and resilience into urgent, communal sound.

Fun a velt vos iz nishto mer (Of a World That Is No More) is a deeply researched and evocative exploration of klezmer music as both artistic expression and cultural memory, drawing on rare manuscript sources preserved in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. Performed by clarinetist Angelo Baselli and accordionist Gianluca Casadei, this recording reconstructs a musical world rooted in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe--one that flourished for centuries before being irrevocably altered by the upheavals of the twentieth century.

The title, taken from the memoir of writer Israel Joshua Singer, reflects a vanished cultural landscape: the shtetl life of the Pale of Settlement, where klezmer music served as the essential soundtrack to communal rituals, celebrations, and daily existence. This repertoire--spanning freylekhs, nigunim, mazurkas, dances, and ceremonial pieces--reveals a rich synthesis of influences, including synagogue chant, Slavic and Romani folk traditions, Hasidic spirituality, and European dance forms. The album presents these traditions not as static artifacts, but as living, breathing expressions of a dynamic cultural ecosystem shaped by migration, exchange, and adaptation.

At the heart of the project lies the groundbreaking ethnographic work of Shlomo Zanvil Rapoport (An-ski) and ethnomusicologist Zinovy Kiselgof, whose early twentieth-century expedition across Jewish communities in present-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland documented an extraordinary archive of melodies, rituals, and performance practices. Their efforts--combining field recordings, transcriptions, photography, and oral history--captured over 2,000 artifacts, hundreds of songs, and invaluable contextual data. Much of this material, now digitized through the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project (KMDMP), forms the basis of this recording, allowing these historically grounded interpretations to emerge directly from primary sources.

The program itself unfolds as both a listening journey and a narrative reconstruction. Early tracks explore core klezmer forms such as freylekhs and nigunim, while subsequent selections incorporate transitional and cosmopolitan repertories--Mazurka, Ange, Kozatshke, and Terkish--demonstrating the permeability of cultural boundaries. The second half of the album is conceived as a wedding sequence, moving from ceremonial introductions and processional dances to farewell songs and closing pieces, mirroring the structure of traditional Jewish celebrations. Each piece is linked to specific manuscript sources, performance contexts, and ethnographic annotations, offering a rare level of scholarly and musical integration.

Angelo Baselli brings to the project a dual perspective as both classical clarinetist and klezmer specialist, informed by extensive study with leading figures in the field and collaborations with scholars and performers across Europe. His partner, Gianluca Casadei, contributes a similarly versatile approach on accordion, blending classical training, jazz sensibility, and deep experience in folk and theatrical music. Together, they create performances that balance historical awareness with expressive immediacy, capturing both the intimacy and vitality of the original traditions.

Recorded in June 2025 at DV Studios (Sala Musicale Giardino, Crema, Italy), the album features sound engineering by Gabriele Zanetti and detailed liner notes by Angelo Baselli. The release includes artwork based on Wincenty Smokowski's Jewish Wedding (1858), reinforcing its archival and historical framing. With a total runtime of approximately 58 minutes, this Da Vinci Classics production stands as both a scholarly reconstruction and a powerful artistic statement, preserving the sounds of a cultural world that--though transformed--continues to resonate.

Additional Details

Label: DA VINCI CLASSICS

Genre: Classical

Run Time: 58 mins

Release Date: 09/18/26

UPC: 746160919300