Benny performs at the Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör Jubileumskonsert
The Gustaf Sjökvists Kammarkör (GSKK) have recently recorded a selection of Benny Andersson compositions for a forthcoming album and on Sunday afternoon, Benny was a guest performer at the acclaimed Swedish choir’s 20th anniversary concert.
Benny was accompanied to the Jubileumskonsert held in the Eric Ericsonhallen, a former church on the Stockholm island of Skeppsholmen, by his wife Mona and Kristina Lugn.
Before taking his place at the piano, Benny told the audience a little about the pieces that they had chosen to perform and explained that working with a choir such as the GSKK was not dissimilar from working with ABBA because of all the layers of music that he used to add to their tracks.
Benny then accompanied the choir for five songs, Lilla skara, Kärlekens tid, Anthem, O klang och jubeltid and En skrift i snön.
The arrangements, which were performed at a considerable slower tempo than they are usually played, sounded stunning and provided the first insight as to what we may expect from the album when it is released next Spring.
After the concert, Gustaf Sjökvist told icethesite:
“It has been really wonderful to work with Benny. His music suits the choir perfectly because it has such strong classical roots. We have had a lot of fun putting the album together and are looking forward to more collaborations in the future.”
Benny says that the choir may feature on the Cirkeln soundtrack.
Goodbye to a Dancing Queen.
Today, 12 December 2014, our nation said goodbye to the beloved HM Queen Fabiola of Belgium, who died last Saturday aged 86. Few people know that she was a real Dancing Queen, an ABBA superfan, who raved about ABBA and their fantastic music all her life. They say that she once tried to attend an ABBA performance in London, but unfortunately got no permission of the protocol. Last week a few pop artists here in Belgium put ABBA songs on their playlists to honour Queen Fabiola.
I am really looking forward to this choir album as well. This should be something special, but I can well imagine some of your compositions with a choir. Of course Kärlekens tid, but Klinga mina Klockor would be great again, and what about Arrival? This is a melody that could go on for some more time than just three minutes, and a choir to it could be even more intense than on the Arrival album – there you had only two singers. 😉