MUSIC REVIEW: A Candlelight Tribute to Abba - The Cathedral, Manchester.

Manchester Cathedral have been hosting many candlelight concerts, and continue to do so, and so finally curiosity got the better of me, and I decided that I should see - and hear - for myself, what the fuss was all about.

This particular concert was performed by Manchester-based string quartet, String Infusion, in the circular dais in front of the ancient screen and modern Stoller organ in the centre of Manchester's beautiful cathedral. Seating was arranged all around the dais, and faux-candles were simply everywhere. Obviously it would have been a health-and-safety nightmare if they had been real, and, from a distance, their cumulative effect was indeed mesmeric. Whilst there was still a little daylight streaming through the windows, the effect was glorious, as not only did we have these 'candles' all around, but we could clearly see the four musicians too; however, once darkness outside fell, so did the available light in the cathedral, and sadly no attempt to illuminate the musicians, and so we could just as easily have been listening to a recording of the music being played, since we no longer had any visual other than candles. Perhaps that though was the idea..?!

Playing 14 Abba hits in their one hour concert [there was a 30 minute interval in the middle], were Cara (cello), Dillon (viola), Emma (violin), and Mateus (violin). The adapting and scoring for string quartet of these hits was really rather strange. Of course, the melodies were recognisable, but it was a quasi-classical scoring, a classical chamber sound, and not the oomph and pop sound with which Abba is so instantly recognisable and loved. The four instruments were not amplified (the acoustics in the cathedral are superb), but the meagre sound of these four instruments was simply insufficient to convey and transmute the fullness of the Abba sound, and the more upbeat, faster tracks certainly lacked this more than the slower ballads. The biggest advantage this scoring had was that we were able to hear the harmonic structure and progressions of the music in far greater detail than in the originals, meaning that I now have a greater understanding of and respect for Ulvaeus and Andersson as songwriters. 

This is certainly a unique event, and was most proficiently presented and performed, but the combination of being in a hallowed place of worship, and the fact that we were, in essence, watching and listening to a classical chamber string quartet, made us all extremely subdued and reverent. Abba might well have provided the original melodies, but this tribute to them was quite a solemn one. I had never heard Abba's music played like this before, and I venture, neither had anyone else in the audience either.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 13.10.23