Chess På Svenska : John Vs Marco

I have to stop buying all these CHESS CDs. My current count is at 14 CDs: The original concept CD (2 CDs) The Broadway recording (1 CD) Chess at the Prince Edward (Bootleg 2 CDs) Chess in Concert (2 CDs) Chess Opening Night NYC (Bootleg 3 CDs) Chess Danish production (2 CDs) Chess Pa Svenska (2 CDs) not to mention - but I will - the various vinyl, 7" and 12" single releases. That's 20 years of listening to a musical which, in my opinion, is not B&B's finest work.

This latest reincarnation makes clear two pertinent facts:

l. CHESS is not so much a musical as a collection of pop tunes 2. It's hopelessly dated and hasn't aged very well.

Of the many different recorded versions it is the recent Danish production that comes the closest to replicating a musical eligible for the legitimate theatre.

Now for Schack. BTW, it's obvious why B&B chose to call it CPS rather than Schack. This way, all CHESS CDs can be grouped together under "C" in the CD bin. Who would think of looking under "S" ? Another good marketing tool.

The package of CPS is attractive - Mono Music has a penchant for blue boxes. The packaging is similar to Kristina, picture CD, no jewel case booklet, back inlay pic the same as that on the CD. Nice and classy. However, and this is one of many pet peeves about this box set - some of the pictures scattered within the text are improperly placed so the photo of Tommy K. on pages 32-33 becomes nothing more than two pages of black background until the spine of the booklet is pressed open. Same with Helen's face on pages 50-51.

Now for the music. The overture foreshadows what is wrong with this production. The opening strains played on the string instruments are beautiful, haunting and then, suddenly and rather jarringly, an electric guitar is heard and it is the use of that instrument that dates this production.

Another sticking point is that the arranger has chosen to overuse snare drums and other percussion to make an emotional point. Almost every track has an emotional "climax" by way of the snare drums. Yet, almost as quickly as they appear, the drums fade away and the tune continues. Note: use snare drums only towards the end of the number, overuse only exhausts the listener. It's akin to using exclamation points after every sentence! Now wouldn't that be annoying! I think so!

There are also too many disparate musical styles in CHESS - rock, pop, ballads. Kristina as a work is more cohesive than CHESS. On this recording the various musical styles are fighting with each other. I challenge anyone to listen to CD 2 track 7 the lovely Drommar Av Glas only to be jarred by the 80's synth pop of track 8 ..schack.

As for the new tunes, Josefin turns in the most satisfying rendition with "Han ar en man, han ar ett barn" - or as I affectionately call it, "There's a man in my barn". Her voice is perfectly suited to musical theatre, with her gravelly emotion laden phrasing, much more than the smooth as glass voice of Helen. Helen, to her credit, does get into the act in her duet with Josefin. This is not to detract from her beautiful voice - she was magnificent in Kristina - however, IMO, Josefin's delivery packs more punch. Unfortunately, the rock tune "vem kunde ana" follows Nilsson's number and breaks the mood.

Rolf singing The Arbiter has the perfect voice for musical comedy - he brings life to an admittedly dated 80's synth pop hit. I have not seen CPS on stage, but I imagine Rolf in white face a la Gary Numan dressed as a character in Kurt Weil's "Three Penny Opera". This could be a classic. Pity the tune is dated and seems archaic today.

And finally, B&B give us When The Waves Roll Out To Sea but rather than let Helen sing the tune ( as may have been envisioned 20 years ago when Elaine Paige sang her demo version), the tune is given to Rolf, with his mature male voice, about as far a cry from the original concept as could be imagined. I don't understand what is being sung but I suspect the tune could have been given to a female voice instead rather than to a secondary character.

A highlight is Tommy's current rendition of Anthem. His voice has matured and it is interesting to compare it with the original. A lot of vocal growth.

I have listened to CHESS for so long it makes no difference as to the language it is sung in. And with the voices of Josefin, Rolf ,Tommy and Helen it is an easy listen. However the current orchestration on several tracks dates the musical as an 80's curio. Pity the musical.

Jon Axelrod Miami Beach, Florida USA

And now the response from Marco............

Now the report from Jon made me fly to the computer to respond :). I totally disagree with almost everything he wrote. Most of all his first comment about the overture:

"Now for the music. The overture foreshadows what is wrong with this production. The opening strains played on the string instruments are beautiful, haunting and then, suddenly and rather jarringly, an electric guitar is heard and it is the use of that instrument that dates this production."

In my opinion the new opening is very good, esp. the guitar. The problem with chess has always been that it incorporates many different styles, styles that switches from pure classical music to pure rock in seconds. I remember very well the first time I saw chess in London. I was sitting next to and old lady and she was having the time of her life, when the prologue began, and she was even having more fun at the start of Merano. Then in the middle of Merano, when the American arrived to thunderous rock music, she almost got a heart attack. Her evening was spoiled. At that moment I learned a very important thing about musicals: the first 5 minutes are very important. The first 5 minutes sets the tone for the whole evening, it prepares the audience! If they had blessed the London production with an overture that would had prepared the public what to expect the next 2,5 hours, it would have been a smash success. A friend of my just phoned to thank me for the copy of chess I gave him today. He is not an ABBA fan but a musical fan, and his first remark was: "the guitar in the overture is brilliant, it's set the tone of the show".

Benny and Bjorn have learned from there mistakes. Now they set the atmosphere of the whole piece with the overture WITH guitar, and the dark grey set and people in dark clothes. It's clear from minute one that this isn't going to be a happy Mamma Mia, no, it's going to be a Casablanca type of show (see my review of the show, posted a few weeks ago).

Another problem of the show, now solved, is the connection between the songs. Chess has always been a collection of songs, not a complete piece. By using new arrangements, for example using more trumpets and bells, the piece has become more of a whole. I don't agree at all that it sounds eighties! I think it sounds timeless now. Don't forget this is an cast recording! You should judge the music in theatre context not as a pop CD. The original production form 1984 may have been successful as a record, but it was simply a very weak musical. It had a lousy book, not very good arrangements (at least from a theatrical point of view) and it was directed in a horrible way (I will never forgive Trevor Nunn for almost destroying a masterpiece).

"Rolf singing The Arbiter has the perfect voice for musical comedy - he brings life to an admittedly dated 80's synth pop hit. I have not seen CPS on stage, but I imagine Rolf in white face a la Gary Numan dressed as a character in Kurt Weil's "Three Penny Opera". This could be a classic. Pity the tune is dated and seems archaic today."

Well, first of all the story takes place somewhere in the late seventies. So there is no objection whatsoever if the music sounds eighties. But it doesn't. Since Benny is the only composer, his influence is more clear. Where the original CD had a mixture of 33% classic, 33% rock and 33% pop, it has switched to 60% classic and 40% rock/pop. Classical music doesn't sound like pop music of the eighties. I really think the score sounds more timeless then ever.

"" There are also too many disparate musical styles in CHESS - rock, pop, ballads. Kristina as a work is more cohesive than CHESS. On this recording the various musical styles are fighting with each other. I challenge anyone to listen to CD 2 track 7 the lovely Drommar Av Glas only to be jarred by the 80's synth pop of track 8 ..schack".

Sorry to say, but your totally wrong at this point. The problem with the second act is that it almost has too many ballads. Drommar Av Glas is nice piece on CD, but it is more film music. The scene in which the music is used, is the trapeze scene, a spectacular scene, and the music is underscoring this brilliant piece of theatre. The arbiter arrives just in time to save the show from becoming to dramatic. It's a brilliant move from the director. I agree this song sounds 80"s, but as said above, the story is set in that time, so who cares?

"Now for Schack. BTW, it's obvious why B&B chose to call it CPS rather than Schack. This way, all CHESS CDs can be grouped together under "C" in the CD bin. Who would think of looking under "S" ? Another good marketing tool."

Rubbish! We had the musical Rent in Holland two years ago, it wasn't called huur, the Dutch word for it, but rent. Chess is a strong title as is, for example Rent or Cats. So why change it?

My overall reaction to Jon's comments are these: This recording is a cast recording, which is meant to reflect the show. It should be judged in that way. As a cast recording it's very very good. Besides that, Bjorn and Benny have turned a successful album, which turned out to be a very bad musical, into a highly successful new musical. The problem with fans like many of us on abbamail, is that we tend to judge these kind of things from the wrong perspectives. For example. Hard words have been said by many on abbamail about Mamma Mia! It was said that it didn't match the original. But that has never been the intension of the writers. Mamma Mia, is a delightful musical which is also very popular. It's popularity is helped by the music, but most of al because it has a good book. Don't forget that three years ago a musical based on the songs of the Beatles opened and it flopped! the same is done with chess. Jon compares it with the original recording and he should judge this piece as a theatre piece. And although I like Kristina very much, the truth is that as a piece of theatre, the new production of Chess is better. The piece is moving al the evening and the direction is razor sharp.

I have respect for the views of Jon, but I think it's clear I don't agree :) I love this new production of chess. It was a beautiful, and for me, a historical evening in theatre. This cast recording is a very good reflection of that evening!

Marco Dirven Leiden The Netherlands