I let the music speak: A celebration of the music of ABBA

Von Otter had just been engaged by the Basle Opera in the early 1980s when she bought ABBA's album The Visitors, and her devotion to Andersson's music took full hold with Kristina från Duvemåla, a musical she went to see again and again.

When it comes to paying tribute to a composer as prolific and as multi-talented as Andersson, however, it takes more than just passion; it also takes a careful selection process. For more than 40 years, Benny Andersson has been composing music in a wide variety of genres: film, folk music, musicals, and of course ABBA's unbeatable pop hits. We find six of those here, from the up-beat "I Am Just A Girl" (originally written for Jarl Kulle, before the group had taken the name ABBA), the title track "I Let The Music Speak" and "The Winner Takes It All" to the last tune before the group split, "The Day Before You Came." She has also chosen to perform emotional ballads from the Anders­son/Ulvaeus musicals Chess (1984) and Kristina från Duvemåla (1995), including "Ut Mot" and "Heaven Help My Heart."

"Some of the tunes are extremely gripping", says von Otter of the diverse repertoire. "They go straight to your heart, and it's completely incredible." The album's folk, jazz, pop, and classical arrangements are performed by Scandinavia's finest jazz and folk musicians, and von Otter is proud to have worked with them to offer music from her native Sweden written by one of her favourite composers: "Very few composers that I know touch me in the way that Benny Andersson's music touches me, over and over again. That's a great gift he has."

After a career devoted almost exclusively to classical music, von Otter explains how her criteria for recorded repertoire lies in her emotional response to each composition: "I sing things that I like and that touch me in some way - be it Mozart or Bach or Handel or Monteverdi or Benny Andersson - as long as it means something to me . . . I always wanted to sing sort of instrumentally, and that works well, I hope, for some of these songs. But the main reason is because I think this music is fantastic. I love it."

With this recording, fans will discover not only the hidden musical love of one of today's foremost mezzo sopranos, but also the full range of Andersson's compositional styles as the outward expression for his many tastes and talents. "But these days," he confesses, "I listen almost exclusively to classical music." It's no wonder, then, that Benny and Anne Sofie have finally found each other.