Klezmer band focuses on holiday cheer

There was a ring of Hanukkah musical light spread across the stage of Disney Hall on Tuesday. Appropriately, given the timing of its performance, a few days before the start of Hanukkah, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, bubbling with holiday spirits, focused its far-ranging interpretive style on the rich historical tradition of Yiddish music.

But perhaps because of the desire to concentrate on the holiday, the 11-member, Boston-based ensemble’s performance only rarely displayed its much-praised eclecticism.

Most of the spotlight, in fact, was claimed by singer Judy Bressler, who captured the essence of tradition while offering her own contemporary renderings.

In the klezmer classic “Rumenye, Rumenye,” she reveled in every campy twist and turn. With “Dona, Dona” she brought the crowd to sing-along life -- completing the task later when she managed to entice a substantial number of listeners to dance in the aisles.

But the emphasis on Bressler tended to minimize the band’s instrumental presence. And it was only in the too-few moments in which individual players stepped forward -- cornetist Scott Aruda with a swing version of “Bublitchki,” soulful violin work from Yaeko Miranda Elmaleh, multi-instrumentalism from leader and founder Hankus Netskyand, and especially the high-flying clarinet of Ilene Stahl -- that this remarkable ensemble revealed the full panoply of its skills.