Customer Reviews

I Let the Music Speak

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is just so wonderful! I know ABBA's music very well, even if most of my records (thousands) are classical. Please excuse me, Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Birgit Nilsson and other giants on the scene; now it is "Let the music speak" that counts. I cannot resist it, I do listen to it every day. This is a record to turn to when a bit sad, when feeling alone, when tired after work, when unable to sleep, or at cosy and/or romantic moments! It fits in everywhere. Key words are: Beautiful music, dedication, love, simplicity - and a very, very beautiful voice. Be aware that the disc has a hidden track 12, not mentioned on the sleeve or disc! There is 40 seconds of silence between track 11 and 12, so it is very easy to miss track 12!
Thank you for the music Ms. von Otter, and thanks to DG for giving us this jewel among CD:s!

Having waited for this release throughout this year, I'm very pleased with result overall! I feel like these songs have been given a very refreshing new life. And although Anne-Sofie's voice is more suited for opera than pop, the clarity and warmth in her delivery really make these simple arrangements shine. The only song I'm not fond of is her interpretation of "I Am Just A Girl." And for those diehard Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Frida fans like me, remember that Benny Andersson himself not only approves of this project, but also appears on 2 selections!

My current understanding of the state of mezzo sopranos or sopranos in general may be a bit primitive. When a companion in Stockholm sent me this CD I stuck it in a stack of other discs and fed them into a player. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. The ABBA songs I remembered seemed transformed by the voice. Flash backs of predawn candles in a flat in Östermalm and the sound and smell of the [ASIN:B001AGXBR2 Gevalia Kaffe] coffee filtering through. Franska bullar, the sour sweetness of leaving, once, or forever and the wistfulness of a full grown woman, an incredible woman, stepping off the stages of World Opera and revealing feeling that transcends arias or divas, no matter how famous. Oh Yes! You dont have to have been there when it happened the first time, after the Schlager Fest and Momey, Money, Money was a song. You don't need to know that Anne Sofie rules opera and performance. Her killer looks don't matter. What does matter that she is a passionate and committed woman who can move you. It may be subterfuge but it works! The only thing more I would want before I die would be for Anne Sofie to do two CDs with Willie Nelson.

I do not listen to this album as an example of crossover music, but rather according to its own merits, and I rate it very highly as such. To me, von Otter simply sings these songs - unfamiliar to me - as they seem to want to be sung. Also, the backup groups are terrific and the sound is superb. The only trouble I have with these songs is that some of them, especially the first, "The Day Before You Came" (which lasts more than 5 minutes), keep ringing in my head hours after I've turned the machine off. I wouldn't expect everyone to like this kind of music, but if you do, or don't mind stretching your musical tastes a bit, try it, I think you'll like it.

Rock and Classical can meet - but only share the same space when the music comes to the artist (like Jay Black, Roy Orbison, Tom Jones, and Jackie Wilson) not when the artist comes to the music, as in this CD when Anne Sophie Von Otter comes to Abba). It can never be in mathematically equal parts: Money, Money, Money and The Winner Takes It All are awful. Because Rock should be a light admixture in the works, not *support*. This musical genius must be able to phrase according to her training. Rock music is more on *feel* and *beat*.
Hence, an astonishingly beautiful, warm soprano for the ages is left standing in an air-conditioned booth and not front and center on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera with Abba in the background.
When the intrusive percussion takes a coffee break, then we have something. "Butterfly Wings" is worth an Amazon star* in itself.
Von Otter is not the only Classical icon to try Pop or Middle-of-the-Road or Broadway songs. Frederica Von Stade comes to mind with her effort a while back. It wasn't perfect, as if the arranger went with the best "pitch" he/she could apply, but there were no "Pop" elements. And *that* record had some pop!

A truly banal and seriously dreadful 'cross-over' CD. I hated it. Ms von Otter's considerable talents lie elsewhere, as we all know.