180828 – Toronto Concert Orchestra

The world can't wait for ABBA's revival so we’re bringing you Canadian favourite, Abbamania!

Rolling Stone magazine reports, “Abbamania is incredible.” The cast of Mamma Mia declares, “Abbamania is ABBA.” The Globe & Mail raves, Abbamania puts on a “great show,” with a performance that is “vocally and musically superb,” praises the Toronto Sun.

Abbamania earns accolades everywhere they perform, but then again, they are the world’s number one tribute to ABBA. Appearing in over 200 shows per year since 1999, Abbamania has performed more concerts than Elvis, The Beatles, Madonna and Michael Jackson combined.

Abbamania’s authentic Swedish Europop sound takes you back in time to when ABBA ruled the airwaves with, “every song note for note, exactly as the original recordings,” according to the New York Times.

All your ABBA favourites with symphony orchestra backup. What better way to end our fifth season than with an ABBA party!

PROGRAMME

Music written by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus (with some songs also by Stig Anderson, Phil Cody, and Neil Sedaka)

SOS
Summer Night City
Super Trouper
Take a Chance on Me
Voulez-Vous
Waterloo
The Winner Takes It All
Chiquitita
Dancing Queen
Does Your Mother Know
Fernando
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
I Have a Dream
Knowing Me, Knowing You
Lay All Your Love on Me
Mamma Mia
Medley (Eagle – Ring Ring – Honey, Honey)
Money, Money, Money
The Name of the Game

Conductor | Kerry Stratton
Featured Guest | Abbamania

PROGRAMME NOTES

Prepared by TCO's Assistant Conductor, Surinder S. Mundra

One of the most famous pop bands in the world was a four-letter acronym. The letters stood for the names of its members. The formation of this band would not happen however until 1966 in Sweden. In that year, two musicians met. They were Björn Ulvaeus, a singer who belonged to a popular folk music group, the Hootenanny Singers, and Benny Andersson, a keyboardist who played for Sweden's biggest pop group of the 1960's, The Hep Stars. Two weeks later after meeting, the pair would generate one of the most exciting and wonderfully successful collaborations of song writing in pop music history. It was a relationship that would last almost two decades. This was not their full story however; Björn and Benny only comprised of half of the group, and half of the acronym.

In the spring of 1969, Björn and Benny met two women who they would eventually marry. Their names were Agnetha Fältsko, a successful solo singer who had already released her first album, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, also a successful singer in her own right. Agnetha and Anni-Frid not only completed and shared in Björn and Benny's lives and passion for singing, but they would also complete that famous acronym, ABBA!

What made ABBA so popular? What was it about these four people from Scandinavia that took the entire world by storm? After all, the world had already experienced the shock and hysteria of the Beatles from Liverpool only a decade prior. Yet with ABBA, there was no raucousness, though they could be loud. There was no overt hyper-sexualization in a time that seemed to be all about sex, though they were sexy; after all, they were blonde-haired and blue-eyed Swedes! Maybe, it was quite simply their ability to write beautiful tuneful songs devoid of any unnecessary ostentatiousness. BBC reporter, Andrew Harrison wrote, that 'their music remains a curious anomaly - a universally successful sound based not on riotous...but in homely, restrained and European values.' Biographer, Carl Magnus Palm perhaps said it best. He wrote, 'Abba didn't just write great songs, they made great records and that was their secret.'

The band dissolved in 1982, and so did their marriages. It is questionable as to how much longevity their music would have if it weren't for the most recent and popular Broadway musical, Mamma Mia which resurrected ABBA's music to a whole new generation. Still, the popularity in that musical whose story is based on the band's music shows us one thing as it reaches millions of people today. ABBA spoke to a generation then in the same way it speaks to a generation now. Their music and their legacy can be summed up in one of their songs. They will go "On and On and On".

THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC

Week 13 | Casa Loma Symphony in the Gardens Series