I know that the answer is likely "No already!", but has anyone heard anything about whether a Play! album is being released...or anything including that arrangement of Chrono Trigger/Cross? I'd pay money to hear Time's Scar played again like they did for me in Chicago.

I asked Jason Michael Paul about a possible CD/DVD release when we met in Stockholm and (as assumed) unfortunately there are problems with getting approvement from all companies for such a release. Too bad for us, but hopefully someday it will be possible.

The problem could be arrangements from Western games being played. The Orchestral Game Concert CDs didn't seem to have problems with getting approvements from the game companies.

Jason and I discussed this at length in this interview that I previously posted:

http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=143

The problem is Nintendo. Nintendo won't allow arrangements for Zelda and Mario to appear on the CD, and the people who would be backing the CD won't allow a CD release without those titles. The fact of the matter is that there is both audio and video recordings of Dear Friends, More Friends, and PLAY!, but they will most likely never see the light of day, unfortunately.

Great interview!

*head meets table*

Just Nintendo the big soundtrack releaser :annoyed:

Haha, yeah. Koji Kondo gave a keynote at GDC this year. There was a Q&A afterwards, and I forgot to ask him about CD releases of soundtracks at Nintendo!

Thanks for being responsible for the Twilight Princess OST never being released. :tpg:

Seriously: I don't understand why they can't just let their tracks be included on the album. They've done it before.

I was really surprised to find out late last year that the Singapore Arts Festival was going to feature Play! at the Esplanade Concert Hall from 15-16 June 2007. Impressive, I thought at the time. Who'd thought anyone would give the little red dot any notice to stage something like Play!.

As usual, I bought tickets late (but fortunately managed to get them). I was shocked to discover that both evening shows were sold out and the 16 June matinee tickets were selling really, really fast. In fact, they're already sold out. I remember how the Singapore leg of Passion by Eminence was sold out or very close to selling out as well.

Play! is now the single most successful performance for the month long Arts Fest here. Quite incredible, if you ask me. I think it did better sales-wise than even Ian McKellen's King Lear production that's to be staged pretty soon. I had no idea there were so many other game junkies in Singapore that were remotely interested in VGM. Which makes me wonder why most music shops still don't carry VGM soundtracks.

I do realise that Play! can be a bit over the top in some ways when it comes to embodying "commercialism" so if they try to at least tone down their scandalous (and, if I might add, embarrassing) scam tactics that have been mentioned numerous times already, I think I should be a rather happy fanboy later today. But I do note that they are selling their concert programme booklets at a ridiculous price (I think even musical programmes are cheaper), which calls for some serious concern and brow knotting. Oh dear.

Stuff is typically $15.00 USD, with the posters being $10.00 USD or so. Not too expensive. Not sure if they're going to change the prices there or what. It's a great show, so I hope you enjoy it! And I don't think there are any scams or scandalous commercialism going on with the shows. =)

Let us know how it goes!

Not anymore hopefully. Do they still do "VIP tickets" for meet and greet stuff?

Don't know, but that's not really a scam. Go to a rock show that has VIP tickets to meet the band after the show. Same thing.

Depends on whether they cover the visiting VIP artists' costs or not. I guess you weren't here when it was reported from the first couple PLAY! concerts that the composers had to pay their flight themselves while visitors were still asked to pay the "VIP" premium. As I wrote before, not anymore hopefully.

Just came back from Play!. Was mildly surprised that some of my friends were performing as part of the Festival Choir for the vocal parts. And that my choir's music director helped to put the Festival Choir together from two of his other choirs. I think my friends have just finished performing for the evening performance even as I type. :P

So how was the concert? Well, it was ok, not bad. I went in with very high expectations and was quite disappointed on a few fronts but there were many great moments as well.

First, with regards to merchandise, I was quite disappointed. The range was very limited, the prices were somewhat high and didn't really interest me (T-shirts, posters and only one CD from a past performance). And no original soundtracks or scores. The only thing that seemed mildly interesting to me was the souvenir programme booklet that had a lot of nice pictures and interesting text but at S$30, that's quite a lot to pay for. In the end, I decided to save my cash to get myself The Transformers movie Bumblebee and Scorponok deluxe toys to add to my robot collection. :P

Since Takenobu Mitsuyoshi of Shemue fame was the only guest composer at the performance, there wasn't much of a problem of having to pay to get an autograph (as was the problem with some previous Play! concerts, I believe) because I think there was no autograph signing session to speak of. *shrugs* That said, I was a bit disappointed Yuzo Koshiro didn't make an appearance as I had initially thought he would. I was half expecting some Ys at the concert but that's wishful thinking, of course.

I happened to bump into a colleague (small world) and he griped about how the performance was quite amateurish. He was kind of disappointed as a result. I do share his sentiment to an extent but I do think that on the whole the performers still did a fairly good job, both the Festival Orchestra and Choir.

While the orchestra was engaging for the most part, I felt that they could be more cohesive and fluid. You could tell the choir was quite amateur but they did add to the enjoyment of the concert and put in a good effort. The female chorus had quite a fairly good blend and a nice sweet quality to their voices which was great for some songs but not necessarily for others. The male chorus had gusto but pity their blend was somewhat poorer than the girls.

As for the actual concert content, it was generally good. I'll quickly run down the song list:

1) Play! "Fanfare" - Uematsu composed this specially for the Play! concerts. Nice and rousing.

2) Super Mario Bros "Suite" - Very hard to go wrong with this Kondo medley of classics. Definitely a crowd pleaser as always.

3) Shenmue I & II "Sedge Tree" - Anticpated this very much and was not diappointed. Breathtakingly beautiful.

4) Lost Odyssey "Main Theme" - There's a haunting beauty about this one, and the female chorus does wonders to the song.

5) Sonic the Hedgehog "Suite" - Never really been a fan of most Sonic music but this medley was surprisingly not too bad. BUT I did enjoy the Starlight Zone theme (one of the few Sonic tracks I like a lot) at the end.

6) Metar Gear Solid "Main Theme" - Gosh, this must be one of the highlights of the concert. Great energy and presence.

7) Blue Dragon "Main Theme" - This was not bad but I wasn't terribly drawn to the song.

8) Kingdom Hearts "Suite" - Another highly anticpated track. Started with the opening lines of the orchestral version of "Hikari" before going into the end credits march (but minus the fantastic "Dearly Beloved" theme :(). The transition was not as fluid as I'd hoped but the one into "Passion" was good, as was the performance of the song. The arrangement was slightly different than the one from the soundtrack, I think. I was griping at how Utada Hikaru was not given composer credits. She did compose "Hikari" and "Passion", right?

9) Final Fantasy VI "Dancing Mad" - Wow. Incredible. The pipe organ (yes, a real pipe organ) was fantastic, never mind that I think a few notes were played wrongly. Choir did a nice job on this one. I think this is only the second time ever in a concert leg that "Dancing Mad" is performed live (I can almost hear the fanboys rejoicing). Pity someone decided to cut out the memorable rock part of the final phase battle with a certain mad clown. :( But nevertheless one of the best items in the entire concert.

- Intermission - with some people milling about to take pictures with a gigantic Blue Dragon mascot. I pity the guy in the costume. It must have been rather hot. :P

10) Daytona USA - I think the song performed here is titled "Sky High". Takenobu Mitsuyoshi came up on stage to perform this piece on piano and even sang. Neat. And Mitsuyoshi's a fun guy to boot. The song proper is rather catchy and nice, too.

11) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion "Suite" - Exceedingly beautiful. Didn't know Oblivion music was this good.

12) Chrono Trigger and Cross "Suite" - The individual songs in the medley were mostly very nice ("Remiscence" from CC, CT main theme, "Time's Scar", Frog's theme, "To Far Away Times", and maybe something else I missed), but the transitions were kind of abrupt and less than satisfying for the most part. I was also a bit disappointed that the lead violin melody in "Time's Scar" was usually drowned by the orchesta. Could be fixed with having more violinists playing the melody as opposed to one lone soloist.

13) World of Warcraft "Suite" - Very dramatic and heavy-handed. It was rather nice but I thought the choir could have been heavier on this song. The female chorus soloist (I think) was quite good, though.

14) That Bungie Sci-fi FPS for Xbox "Suite" (because typing the game title results in some strange stuff...) - It's always great to hear the familiar main theme from the game. The male chorus was not too shabby on this one. Generally a nice medley and I rather like the energy on the song.

15) Castlevania "Suite" - Fairly interesting medley. Some familiar tunes showed up. Thought it could have been even better, though.

16) The Legend of Zelda "Suite" - Very beautiful opening that leads into the fan favourite main theme. The rest of the song is quite goof, but the ending was too sudden for my liking. A bit more development and lead in would have been welcomed.

17) Final Fantasy VII "One-Winged Angel" - A crowd pleaser and actually very well performed. The chorus could have been a bit fuller and louder but still a great performance. Easily another highlight of the concert.

18) Shinobi (encore piece) - I was pleasantly how surprised how nice this was. Beautiful. But it's quite funny to see "Revenge of Shinobi" splashed on the screen.

Two more rounds of long applause but no luck with a second encore.

Overall, the concert was fairly enjoyable. It didn't quite meet all my expectations and I think some of the arrangements could be tighter and the transitions more seamless. Still an ok performance and there were some great moments.

But that said, I think I enjoyed myself much more at the Passion concert by Eminence. Maybe it was the smaller setting and the greater intimacy but I thought the songs performed by the band at that concert were more beautiful (good song selection had a large part to play) and had more character. And there was a lot of Eminence CDs and Mitsuda merchandise to buy and even an artiste autograph session (with Mitusda as well).

Wasn't Yuzo Koshiro there DJ'ing music before the concert? And are you sure that there wasn't an autograph session after any of the three concerts?

Three sold-out concerts in Singapore. Five in Sydney? Ah, it will be hard but we'll see what happens.

I'd have to check with my friends for the other two performances because after the Saturday Matinee, I certainly didn't see Mitsuyoshi anywhere. And no, Koshiro wasn't doing any DJing. :( It was a simple case of playing songs from various game soundtracks piped in through the speakers.

From what I gather, I think there were people from various parts of the region who came down to Singapore for the concert. Which in hindsight isn't too surprising since it's the Asian premiere of Play!.

Who was the lucky person that got the sonic he threw into the crowd?

That's a big bump.

FYI for the MD/DC/VA people if you didn't already know, PLAY! is coming back to the area, this time at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore, July 18th. Two years ago it was at Wolf Trap. I think it conflicted with Otakon last time around; not the case this time.

Anyway, I'm going. Maybe I'll see some of you there? Yeaaa.

I know I'll definitely be at the Baltimore show if at all possible. Any maybe some folks from OCR too:
PLAY! concert in Baltimore, MD on July 18 - OverClocked ReMix Forums

Since I never come in this forum, I didn't know about the Baltimore concert until I saw it in the Sun today. After some deliberation, I bought myself a ticket; I never go to concerts, but this is one I'd really like to see. Hopefully my train isn't late on Friday, otherwise I'll be late to the concert.

I've never been to the Meyerhoff; is there any fast food around there, so I can duck in and get supper before the show?

Yes, there's food only a block or two away. Google Maps is your friend. :)

And I'll be wearing my black Overclocked ReMix shirt. Hope to see you guys there. Come up and say hi! :3:

Awesome, see yous at the show then maybe. Maybe I'll wear my OLDK shirt, but probably not.

I'm wearing a blue plaid shirt and gray pants, since I'm coming from work. I hope to get there around 6:30-7 so I can check out whatever they have set up.

Clowns! Next time a big ass VG concert comes to town we need to get together and buy tickets and make it a meet.

I won't be gracing you guys with my presence tonight so you'll have to tell me how it is.

I took some videos of the songs I was looking forward to. I put them on YouTube... excuse the shitty camera handiwork though because I was trying to keep it concealed WHILE executing a slow fist raise. :tpg:

METAL GEAR SOLID:

YouTube Video

CHRONO TRIGGER/CHRONO CROSS:

YouTube Video

GUILD WARS:

YouTube Video

The highlight of the night: THE Super Shinobi. You can only imagine. Castlevania was fucking amazing as well.

Got photos too that I'd put in my CJ or something, but I haven't been maintaining it lately. ;_;