Symphonic Fantasies Concert to Celebrate Music of Square Enix
 

On September 12, 2009, the concert Symphonic Fantasies will occur at the Philharmonic Hall in Cologne, Germany. In an exclusive interview, producer Thomas Boecker has confirmed that the concert will be dedicated to various popular series designed by Square Enix. He also gives other new information about the concert, such as details of the arrangements, performances, and guests. Read more here. There's lots more to be announced about the concert so keep checking the site for more updates.

I'm really excited about this concert. Symphonic Shades was a fantastic production in all respects -- arrangements, performances, and more -- but Symphonic Fantasies sounds like it'll be even better. I'm a big fan of Jonne Valtonen's work and will be really looking forward to hearing his new arrangements of Final Fantasy, Mana, etc. classics. I'm looking forward to attending in September!

What do you think? Are you planning to attend?

Sounds very exciting! As for attending myself, I'm really not sure since it's far from home and costly to travel to, but who knows? Nice interview too.

Thanks for the info. I totally overlooked the news about Symphonic Fantasies but today is exactly the right time to find out :D

Of course I will attend and I will be the first to buy tickets tomorrow morning.
And I know I'm not the only one from GFF/VGMdb who's going to be there :)

I'll start crying should Kikuta appear! :D You can beg I'll be there!

I wish I could be there but I'll just have to hope for another radio broadcast like what we got for Symphonic Shades.

I'll cry if this appears (or any other compositions from this great game). Although the details on the program are pretty ambiguous and don't make me raise my hopes for it. The information on the Kölner Philharmonie site mention the four game series "and many others", while the SEMO interview seems to indicate the concert is limited to music from those four series. Care to elaborate more, Chris? Or are you under NDA?

But in any case, the concert will be a dream come true: The quality from Symphonic Shades and the other Symphonic Game Music Concerts, but exclusively dedicated to the music I grew up with, newly arranged by a highly talented musician. I couldn't imagine anything better.

Also...
Rhetorical questions much? Booked my hotel room as soon as the concert date was announced.

I'd be personally thrilled if the playlist turns out to be mostly music from pre-PS1 games (I originally stopped gaming after the SNES). But this is unlikely since of the four series mentioned only the Secret of Mana one was released in Germany before Sony took over, so I expect this to be rather focused on what I'd call "recent" music (in addition to be Square biased) instead.

Everything I know is actually said in the interview. There's a lot of mystery still surrounding the concert. I'm not sure whether the track listings are privately finalised, but the WDR website says there'll be music from Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Kingdom Hearts, and Chrono Trigger, maybe more? I've got a feeling most of the items will be pre-PS2 games.

I'm sorting out tickets now since things are bound to sell out given the cheap prices. Amazingly, Don of SEMO seems to be coming as well all the way from America!

Also, this says my thoughts in a better way than I ever could:

Hey guys, so I'm thinking I will have to go to this. Looked at some plane tickets and they were 750 us dollars, which I can manage.

BUT what I would like help from you all is would anybody be willing to share a hotel room or have a place I could stay and show me around? I don't speak any German so it'd be great if I could meet some gamingforce folks and have them show me around. If not, that's cool, it'll be an adventure either way.

This orchestra is probably the best I have ever heard. Drammatica and symphonic shades are by far the two best orchestra albums I have ever heard.

Hiho folks! It's amazing to read that so much people just for the concert will take a trip to Germany. Because of that Teioh and I were talking about the idea to do a GFF meeting before and/or after the concert. We could do some sightseeing, visiting German stores and pubs, talking about VGM and so on. What would you say about?

At the moment, I'd be up for it. I *should* be arriving on Friday, the 11th, and leaving on Monday. I'm not familiar with Cologne, coming from the US and all, but Hamu-Sumo, let me know via PM! I might be hanging with Chris though, as we do run SEMO together and I haven't seen him in about a year.

I'm familiar with Cologne, living just 20km away.

As plans are now I guess Hamu-Sumo and I meet up at Cologne's central train station on Stepember 12.

The accommodation problem was solved last time at Symphonic Shades with just staying up all night in a pub.

Ticket now in pocket, I'm fairly certain I will be attending. I'll be staying in Köln for the weekend, I guess. I have some hope for the concert to be good, too. Even with Kingdom Hearts' sappy, boring music interluding it.

We did that on the first time we went to see Play! in Stockholm. It was completely horrible, but fun at the same time.

I'm seriously considering jumping across the channel to see it. I'll see if the missus lets me loose lol :)

Si

I'm going, me, Hamu and Teioh had a great time last year, so i can't wait to spend more time with those crazy germans.

Hey guys, I'm trying to buy a ticket, but I'm having trouble with the site because it's in german. Can anyone walk me through the process?

I tried using google translate but I don't know how to get the pages to translate after the first one.

EDIT: Never mind, just used the google translate page and translated one field at a time. Now I just gotta figure out how I'm getting there!

Ticket ordering is also available in English here.

However, if anyone need help feel free to contact me.

Ah, and by the way: leo.org is one of the best German - English dictionaries in the web. ;)

I'm quite excited to see what they manage to arrange from Secret of Mana. Kikuta's songs have such untapped potential, as far as official arrangements go. Secret of Mana+ doesn't count, and I think the Orchestral Game Concert version of Angel's Fear is the only one besides that.

I'm hoping to hear one of the more reflective, plaintive melodies... like A Wish, Spirit of the Night, Kind Memories, or Pure Night.

I'd really like to see what will be played exactly. My wife's parents live quite near to Cologne and we could definitely make it ... :o

I would go if I could...are they doing another recording of it? Some of my most listened to Final Fantasy songs are the ones they performed at the live concerts, and I'm a sucker for orchestral arrangements in general...maybe I should try to go...

It will probably take months (late July, early August probably) till the complete concert program is released, keep in mind that we're dealing with original arrangements here, and they don't want to reveal everything from the get-go.

But let me tell you one thing: If somehow, one way or another, you can attend, then do it. It will be an experience you'll never ever forget. That, I can promise you.

Also, think fast. Tickets for the (most likely) superior performance and atmosphere in the Kölner Philharmonie will be sold-out soon which would mean you'd have to resort to the König-Pilsener-ARENA.

I'm pretty sure they don't intend to release the full program until at the concert. I think that'll make the concert more about the musical experience and less about the program. Either way, totally agree with what Prime Blue said: "If somehow, one way or another, you can attend, then do it. It will be an experience you'll never ever forget."

Guys, don't forget the meet & greet with the composers. ;)

Before or after?

I believe it is before the concert, according to the interview on SEMO.

This just popped up in my youtube subscriptions! YouTube - Simphonic Fantasies

I'm pretty sure it's from Symphonic Fantasies, because for one it says it is and also this guy has a bunch of symphonic shades videos.

Anyone recognize it?

Hm, a leaked video? The hall looks definitely like WDR's Rundfunkhaus. But two points are confusing me. 1) The different camera views let it look more professional than secretly recorded and 2) it's march now, the concert takes place in september. Isn't it too early to do any practises yet?

Furthermore I can't say from what game the music is either.

It may be a video of the first rehearsals. I don't recognize the music either, but looking at the other videos I do remember cameras being stationed in the Funkhaus Wallrafplatz when Symphonic Shades took place.
This is still a little bit early for rehearsals if you ask me, but my guess is that we get another exclusive opening track/fanfare for this concert. Who knows who composed it.

Well, the tags say Symphonic Fantasies Fanfare. Perhaps it's an original composition, much like the PLAY! Fanfare.

From Square Enix Music Online :: Interview with Symphonic Fantasies Producer (January 2009) :

Thomas Boecker: "We will have a very good amount of rehearsal time, even more than we had for Symphonic Shades. You hardly can find such conditions in the world of video game music concerts. I would even go so far to say that Symphonic Fantasies will have the biggest amount of rehearsal time ever."

Okay guys, just read the newsletter in my mailbox. It's the opening fanfare of Symphonic Fantasies, exclusively composed and orchestrated by Jonne Valtonen.

Awesome, this is getting mad exciting.

A side question, when will my tickets ship exactly? Even if I don't have them, will I be able to just show my receipt at the event?

Weird. Was going to post about the video, but noticed that somebody already did. It took me to the first page when I clicked on the thread. Anyway, video is awesome, and the theme is way more mature than some other opening fanfares we've heard for other concerts!

Also, it makes perfect sense that they pre-recorded this. They are, of course, going to record an album. Wouldn't be surprised if it was already underway!

Haha, yeah Arcubalis, I was on that asap. When I posted they hadn't even put the tag information on there. By the way, awesome RE5 feature you got going on the blog.

Got my ticket in the mail today! Now to plan the journey to Germany. And that rhymes Marge, and you know it rhymes.

Does anyone know how many people the concert hall holds. I saw some pictures on the website and it looks really small and incredible. This is gonna be awesome beyond words.

By the way, looks like there is going to be a second concert date in Oberhausen.

German Wikipedia says up to 2000 people fit in.

Yo but as far as I know Oberhausen is a "better than nothing" solution for everyone who wants to attend the concert live.
König-Pilsener-Arena (the hall where SF takes place in Oberhausen) sounds for me like a multi-use-hall with worse acoustic than Kölner Philharmonie, prices are higher (for students at least) and don't know whether the composers will be in Oberhausen as well.

For everyone Cologne should be the first choice - even its one day later than the concert in Oberhausen.

Ah, thanks, I guess my real question is, will the sound be acoustic or will they use speakers. God, I hate nothing more than hearing the orchestra pumped through speakers. I want the raw sound baby, that's what's so great about concerts.

Don't worry, the hall is like a real concert hall should be. Regarding German Wikipedia again it has no parallel walls so it's build like an amphitheater and even the seats are designed to avoid any unexpected loss of the sound.

The complete Symphonic Shades program was known by April 2008. For Symphonic Fantasies, we only know the newly-composed "Fanfare overture" by Jonne Valtonen. I'm not saying they should take away the surprise, but at least some title announcements would be nice by now. Being completely left in the dark is kind of disheartening, I want something to look forward to.

Sigh . . . I was thinking about flying for this especially since a friend is staying in Germany and would be interested in this too. Unfortunately, there's a slight problem of me getting married two weeks after the concert. Ah well, gotta hope for another one in 2010.

I guess we're lucky the concert takes place this year and not in 2011/2012 when the subway will support the orchestras in the Philharmonie. ;)

Don't know if anyone has answered this already but are they doing an official recording of this concert at some point?

CD is a no-brainer, but I guess there won't be a radio broadcast this time around.

Less than three months and we still wait for some title/composer info. :/ Hope there's an announcement soon so in the worst case I can order (read: import) some soundtracks to let sign them.

SEMO should be making an announcement about the composers mid-July, though I'm not sure about the titles. I think there might be an element of surprise on the night but could be wrong.

No objections to some unannounced titles (à la Michiru Yamane on the pipe organ, that was so unexpected and [adjective for ineffable state of bliss]), but nothing at all wouldn't be a good idea, IMHO. In the past years they gave you the chance to tune yourself for the music, to replay the games and to grow attached to a composition before you heard a majestic arrangement at the concert. Not knowing the setlist in advance would take away quite a bit of "impact" for me.

But then again, I can see title announcements push tickets, so maybe they'll be made in case the arena concert doesn't sell as desired, as sort of a wild card.

Surprises are fine and even welcome but a sneak peak is never wrong, isn't it? :)

Well, let's wait for mid-July!

First star guest announced! It's...

Hmmm... I have the Kingdom Hearts OST to be signed. Hmm... would you say drammatica is worth enough to be grabbed?

I'd say yes.

I'm looking more forward to this with each passing day. Since Shimomura has been announced, I've decided to bring along Legend of Mana (my favorite) and murmur (select taste for sure!) for signatures.

Is everyone still keen on meeting up at some point? I know I'll be arriving in Germany on September 8th, well before the concert.

Yoko Shimomura is the only Square composer I have no album of :-/
I might try to obtain Legend of Mana before the concert, because that is also my favorite album of her. For all other possible guests I am already prepared :)

As for the meeting up part, I am still keen on that. I think most of us are definitely meeting up, just like at Symphonic Shades last year and it would be great to get some new people from GFF to join us.
Last year we met after the concert and spent pretty much all night in a pub, this year we have more time to organize and there are a lot more people coming from all over the world. It's going to be really interesting.

Also, we would be the coolest group at the concert compared to the cosplayers and anime fans.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but as I'm from Cologne I can pick anybody up and show you around the city.

Oh, Teioh! That would be great. I'll get in touch with you as the date approaches! I'd definitely like a tour guide :D for the few days I'm there prior to the event, that is, if you don't mind!

I'm up for some sort of a meeting. I'll be flying in on friday already, to see some of the city.

I'll have to bring my Parasite Eve OST then, if there is a chance to meet Shimomura. Of course one can already guess who the other two composers are, so I pretty much know what to bring for signatures. ;)

Last year it was really no problem to meet Yoshiro, Mitsuyoshi or even Hülsbeck. Well, maybe Uematsu (I'm really sure that he comes, in 99% of all cases he's there during such events) will be the toughest for a pic with him but signing goes easily.

Btw. I want a group photograph with all GFF members attending the concert and the composers. :D

OH my lord, you don't have drammatica yet? That is the best cd of music I have ever laid ears on. Also, more tickets are up, so I'm snatching up another one for my brother.

Second special guest revealed.

I look forward to probably seeing some of you at the concerts!

YES! YES! HELL YES! MITSUDA-SAN! YES! Awesome! You don't know how happy I am now. :D

Phatcorns: Sorry, mom. :( Order will be soon together with some Mitsuda and Uematsu stuff. :3

Kirite better be in that order... ;).

I'm glad he'll be there.

Kirite is Mitsuda's worst work by far, even though it's not a total waste of a cd.

I think that is the first time I've ever heard anyone say that. I was bound to come across someone who thought that eventually. Personally, for me, it's Hako no Niwa.

Alright, nice joke, I laughed. Could we be serious now? Hmm?

Kirite has one or two good tracks (e.g. Players' Tree) but the vocal tracks are boring. Although I think Mitsuda's discography contains more stinkers than people usually think, I can't pick up the absolute worst.

You guys can't be real.

vocal tracks.... boring?!?!

I don't believe what I'm reading here....
IMHO the tracks composed by Mitsuda and backed my Eri Kawai's vocals are by far the best thing you can get. These even surpase the vocal track by Noriko Mitose on the CC soundtrack. If you don't believe me get yourself a copy of the Dark Chronicle arrange album. Track 1 by Mitsuda, again backed by Kawai's vocals - it's just awesome.

Anyway, concerning the already anounced special guest.... I'm now in a big dilemma! :(
I just don't know which albums I should bring to Cologne. I think I'll take the CC, CT, CREID and Kirite album by Mitsuda and Drammatica, Legend of Mana and the KH Complete Box by Shimomura. Tough decisions to make...

Wow, Kirite no good? We got some smokers here!

Haha, seriously though, this concert is going to be balls to the wall amazing.

Oh yeah, almost forgot: count me in for some meeting either before or after the concert. I don't have any train tickets yet, so I can still decide when to arrive in Cologne. :)

Next composer might be a surprise. Kikuta not Uematsu, although I'm personally very happy. And besides, who knows what surprises might be lined up on the night?

HIroki Kikuta??? OMG!!!!

WTF! Can somebody twitch me? Hell, Kikuta-san, that's really a bomb! Secret of Mana is a classic game in Europe so it's his music. Awesome! Thank you very much, Mr. Böcker!

Wow. I must admit I thought about this, the third attendant being Kikuta instead of Uematsu, but I never really expected it.
I hope not too many people are disappointed now, but I'm looking forward to Kikuta even more. There will still come concerts where you can meet Uematsu.

Now to obtain Love Relaxation or Nice Life as Wife..

Did my order on Amazon.co.jp a few minutes ago. Concerto and Love Relaxation are on the way. :3

Kikuta is quite a pleasant surprise. Looks like I'll be bringing my Secret of Mana and Alphabet Planet albums! Can't wait to meet him! Might bring In the Sky on the Water as well.

Looks like I have to bring a full suitcase of albums to Cologne :)

EDIT: So far I'm very happy with the special guests. Kikuta is really a (good) surprise. I don't care so much for Uematsu - would rather like to see someone like Hamauzu showing up so I can sign my SaGa albums and the FFX piano collections.

The announcements could not be better. Great choice of composers and a very promising concert experience. Looking forward to meet all of you!

And I must say that I am impressed by you who travel all the way from USA.

Lucky me will also attend the Sinfonia Drammatica concert in Stockholm August 4th.

I hadn't even heard of Sinfonia Drammatica! Yoko Shimomura's Drammatica really is my favorite cd ever made so I hope they play some of the songs at Symphonic Fantasies.

I think that Symphonic Fantasies will have different tracks of drammatica album because Jonne Valtonen made new arrangements especially for the concert. Eight tracks of drammatica will be played in Sinfonia Drammatica: four from Legend of Mana, one from Live a Live ("The Bird Flies in the Sky, the Fish Swims in the River") and three from Kingdom Hearts (all from the album, except "Twinkle Twinkle Holidays").

Square Enix Music Online :: Video Game Music News

Surprise! Mr. Uematsu completes the set:

Square Enix Music Online :: Video Game Music News

I'm so glad four composers are attending rather than three like originally announced!

Haha, you know Uematsu couldn't miss this!

Hahaha, this is going insane. :D

I just found a website about the concert at WDR. While most of it is nothing new, it says that Symphonic Fantasies will be broadcasted on radio:

WDR 4, Sa 12.09.2009, 20.05 Uhr (that's 8:05pm GMT+1)

So everybody who's not coming can listen to this on internet radio, just like at Symphonic Shades.

Very good! Hopefully we'll also get a lossless stream -> high quality concert recording.

@Primeblue: You can leave your equipment at home :D

Shhht, you!

Okay guys, need your help again. I don't have any soundtrack for Uematsu-san to be signed (please, don't throw rocks at me!). Well, that's not true. I have Chrono Trigger but it's not one of the works he claims any honor ("It was more like I was an additional or supporting composer. It’s Mitsuda’s work, not my work." Source (near the end of the interview)). So, as I'm going to order "drammatica" for Shimomura-san soon I want to add at least one soundtrack of Uematsu. Any recommendations? What about "Last Odyssey" or "Blue Dragon"? Me is not a hardcore fan so I'm not really willing to grab a monster mega Final Fantasy Bonus WTF Special Edition for over 9000 yen.

Blue Dragon is a fantastic soundtrack. From what I have heard of Lost Odyssey, that's great too.

But why not go with something more traditional, like the FF6 soundtrack. Still his best work.

Thanks for your quick response! As you mention it I guess FF6 OST is still purchaseable? I put it on my virtual list then.

Still open for further comments. :)

Yes, you can get the Final Fantasy VI Original Sound Version at CDJapan or PlayAsia.

Additional Spam:
It seems that Symphonic Fantasies will be presented in concert suite form. I'm really excited to see which pieces make it into each suite.

Also just watched the movie. Arnie says the four series will be "showcased in one elaborate medley". A bit confusing, but I guess that means "one elaborate medley" per series and not each medley with four compositions from the respective series.

I'm fond of suites, as long as the transitions are natural. It is not exactly a new approach either, as the series had some two or three dozen of suites. Jonne Valtonen did some of the best of them, so I'm confident that the end result will be fantastic.

Do I understand right that they want to play all the tracks of a series in one big suite? Hm, in the first interview with Thomas Böcker about Symphonic Fantasies he said there will be over 70 minutes of music. Divided by four means that each suite is about 17 minutes long. Sounds hard for the orchestra.

I have been preferred to mix the series'.

Man, I am so excited for this. All new arrangements, yes! I think I've heard the same orchestra arrangements they've been using for these games for long enough. And Secret of Mana finally getting the treatment? Oh, yes, this is too awesome.

Feeling like an idiot here, I didn't realize this was gonna be such a big thing, with those composers attending etc. And in Cologne! That's less than 1.5 hours from where I live, so I'm gonna try and book tickets!
Is there going to be a GamingForce fans meetup?

Anyone planning to illegally upload bootleg movies of the event, so the rest of us can listen to a pale reflection of the presumably awesome performance?

Please, pretty pleeeaase?

Ahh I told you it's gonna be suites :D I'm happy and confident the suites will contain some surprises. Nothing's better than listening to a medley and suddently hearing your favorite track.
If all get the same treatment, that's quite generous for SoM and KH -- the CT/CC Medley from Play! was 8 minutes long and these medleys will be twice the length. I just hope they choose some good tracks from the whole Final Fantasy series.

You bet, before and after the concert. Anybody who's up for it. As some people are arriving the tuesday before this might be a whole week doing nothing but anticipating the concert (and seeing a bit of Cologne) :D


what, I wrote that the concert will get a free-of-charge worldwide internet radio broadcast by WDR4. there's a good chance it will get a CD release, too. and now people want bootleg movies? :D

You better believe I will get some movies of the composers, but during the concert I will be intently listening.

Just booked two tickets for the concert. I'm gonna make it a day-trip, do some shopping during the day, and then go to the concert. Hopefully by the time the concert gets closer, we can arrange some time/place to meet. I'd love to be able to put faces to names of people I've seen at this message board for so long.
Hee, so excited about this. I honestly never thought I'd get to see these composers in real life. That makes me at least as excited as the concert itself.

Symphonic Fantasies

The Kingdom Hearts video was released today. Three of the pieces that are part of the suite were revealed and are "Dearly Beloved," "The Other Promise," and "Fight to the Death." There will be a strong piano focus in this portion of the suite. I wonder what else will make it into the suite. I really hope that "Traverse Town" is one of them!

W0000000000000000000000000000000000T!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !111111111111111 :D *collapse*

Hey hey, don't die. :D That's no surprise as the original tracks have a lot of piano involved. So I wonder what changes/new elements Mr Valtonen built in to let sound it new or different.

Can't wait for next Wednesday, the Secret of Mana arrangements are my most anticipated. Honestly, it's hard to guess just one single selection now because there are so many top-notch compositions in the game. But these would be my predictions:

The Boy Heads for the Wilderness
The Eight Strokes of the Bell
Where the Wind Ends
The Dark Star
Meridian Festival

Then again, it's hard to imagine they'll drop the game's main theme, Angel's Fear.

...see what I mean? I'm trying to narrow it down and I'm already posting half a dozen tracks.

Five words: Into the Thick of It!

And yeah, some official English track names will be great. :ugly: (omg! GFF have no Ugly-Smilie!)

@Primeblue: In other words, they could make a whole concert just from SoM music ;)

I prefer the Japanese titles over the English ones, but I guess the latter will be used (the 5th SGMC also called the SoM strings arrangement "Fear of the Heavens" rather than "Angel's Fear").

Today, it was revealed that the Secret of Mana suite will be the first instance where the choir is performing. They will be performing in Latin and a number of pieces will be featured, including "Fear of the Heavens," "Into the Thick of It," and "The Oracle," as the pieces revealed. According to the producer, it will be the most experimental and modernist of all the suites.

I'm really digging the revealed choices. I can't wait to hear what else is included!

Square Enix Music Online :: Video Game Music News

Don't know, but somehow I expected that experimental approach – Secret of Mana just seems like the most playful, so it fits best. :) But I would've never guessed "The Oracle", I'm curious how they'll pull that one off.

So looking forward to this evening...

Here's my prediction for next week, including the announcement of our most favorite of percussion gods participating. :3

Grasslands of Time: Home World
The Secret of the Sea of Trees
Boss Battle 2
Silbird ~The Wings that Cross Time~
On the Shore of Dreams: Another World
The Girl Who Steals the Stars

Yeah, definitely hoping The Girl Who Steals the Stars is showcased. I'm also hoping that To Far Away Times is showcased.

Huh? The Oracle is featured? Could be interesting... And yeah, Into the Thick of It!

For the Chrono part I hope Schala's Theme will made it into.

Official site updated with the new design.

http://i27.tinypic.com/21o3gya.png

Hmm, I was wondering what the four symbols could represent?

The tree... it's probably the mana tree -> SoM
But what about the heart, clock and diamond (??).

Heart -> Kingdom Hearts?
Diamond -> crystal -> Final Fantasy V -> FF series?

Or is it just some random design?!

Wouldn't the clock represent the Chrono series?

Yeah, silly me.... anything else doesn't really make sense :D

Okay, I shall refrain from predections now... -.-

Haha, I can't say it's not unexpected. At least they are all new arrangements, plus of course, there are the surprises. Perhaps that's why they revealed the more popular themes first.

Square Enix Music Online :: Video Game Music News

As for Final Fantasy predictions, that's a lot more difficult to cover..., given the prediction that it will feature some beautiful piano passages, some percussion sections, and the choir, but I"ll throw some out there that I'd love to see orchestrated. I'm sure there will be some favorites thrown in the mix though. One from each Final Fantasy for me...


Chaos' Temple - Final Fantasy
Ancient Castle - Final Fantasy II
The Boundless Ocean - Final Fantasy III
Battle with the Four Fiends - Final Fantasy IV
The Dragon Spreads Its Wings - Final Fantasy V
The Phantom Forest - Final Fantasy VI
Cid's Theme - Final Fantasy VII
Ride On - Final Fantasy VIII
Eiko's Theme - Final Fantasy IX
Song of Prayer - Final Fantasy X
Airship - Final Fantasy XI

If they put battle with Gilgamesh in there, I might poop my pants.

I always found that one to be overrated...but I really don't care either way since there's lots of trust in Jonne. One can only hope for this concert to evoke a permanent business connection between SQUARE ENIX, Merregnon Studios and the WDR. I would love for this high-class orchestra to be used in games.

The Final Fantasy suite was revealed today and will of, course, also feature choir. The three pieces revealed were "Prelude," "Battle on the Big Bridge (or Battle with Gilgamesh)," and "Bombing Mission."

Square Enix Music Online :: Video Game Music News

More titles will be revealed on September 1st, for presumably, all suites, but not all titles will be revealed.

Oh-oh......

@Phatcorns: Which seat do you have? ;)

Hahaha! Holy crap, not in my wildest dreams did I actually expect that song to be selected. That is so awesome!

Your nose will guide you! :D

Rip-offs already flourishing.

"Wir können aus terminlichen Gründen nicht teilnehmen, darum hoffen wir wenigsten zwei anderen für 10 Euro mehr die Möglichkeit zu bieten das Konzert zu besuchen."

The other one is even better:

These people don't even know what they're selling....

That remembers me to Goremaster from gamezone.de who has written news about the first announcements of Symphonic Fantasies, always talking about Chris Hülsbeck. He did it two or three times even I wrote everytime in the comments that SF is about music from Square Enix though. Don't know if wisdom has reached him since then.

A small question concerning the date of the Köln concert. The tickets indicate a (starting?) time of 20:00.

Well, they don't state if the concert starts then (in the sense that the orchestar begins playing) or if it's a date for the concert entrance. What do you guys think?

I don't remember the exact entrance time for GC in Concert. But for Symphonic Fantasies, you'd better be in the Philharmonie by 8 p.m., as the Samstagskonzert begins only five minutes later...and because I won't tolerate another of those famous "Wood Carving Partita" door slams. :p I still think we should have stoned the guy in front of the Gewandhaus, for lack of bladder control.

Thanks PB for the information, that clears up my doubts about the exact date!

GFF Meeting
 

Guys, slowly we should start to plan if we want to do a GFF meeting. We can do one before and one after the concert.

Problems:

Before:
* The Norwegian faction arrives rather late in Cologne (approx. 18:30 CEST)

After:
* Some of us may take part in interviews with the composers

But before we discuss about solutions it should be clarified who is interested in at least one of the meetings. So please everybody write down when you want to take part!


Attendees of the meeting before the concert:

• Hamu-Sumo
• Teioh
• ZiggyGo
• Dallista
• LiquidAcid

Attendees of the meeting after the concert:

• Hamu-Sumo
• Teioh
• AkumuHau & friends
• ZiggyGo
• Kishin (unsure)
• LiquidAcid

And to clarify: We talk about the concert in Cologne on September 12th!

Flying in from Prague on 10th. I could join you guys for a while, but on the other hand I also have a big bunch of other friends I'd like to hang around with as much as possible.

So, maybe after the concert (not sure yet).

I will be arriving September 8th in the afternoon, so I'm also available before the 12th. I think the 11th is the only day I am unavailable though.

Put me on the list for before the concert. I'll be driving home to the Netherlands the same evening still.

While I will be making a news update at SEMO later (there's a server outage at our host at the moment), I can confirm that one of these songs is in the Final Fantasy suite.

Wasn't that one supposed to be released tomorrow?

My guess.

The news update as been posted.

http://www.squareenixmusic.com/music..._from=&ucat=2&

Titles to be featured are "Hand in Hand" from Kingdom Hearts, "Prophecy" from Secret of Mana, "Prisoners of Fate" from Chrono Cross, and "Phantom Forest" from Final Fantasy VI.

More titles will be featured but will not be announced prior to the concert. In addition, you can download a PDF of the concert program at the official website.

Expect another update on Thursday. Thomas has told me that it's a huge announcement!

Turns out I'm not even that bad at predictions. Great to have "Phantom Forest" updated, I found the GRAND FINALE version to be not innovative and "daring" enough.

My guess about the "huge announcement" is a press release for a DVD.

I still consider a CD release more predictable and less "huge" (no offense!), but that's probably it, along with a formal announcement of the radio broadcast.

Well, some two hours and we'll know.

Next sunday will be a small preview of the concert as part of an event held in Cologne by the WDR. At 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 the WDR Rundfunkorchester performs music from Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger & Kingdom Hearts.
If anyone arrives in Cologne a bit earlier...get your info here :D

Dear community, I hate announcements of announcements.

It's still Thursday in Germany so this update was just in time!

Symphonic Fantasies

The big announcement was that for everyone NOT in attendance, there will be a live video stream of the concert on September 12th. The links found in the link above will not work until the day of the concert.

Well, the September 1st announcement that was put up at 12 a.m. CET on SEMO coupled with your earlier comment led some people to believe it would be the same time for that one...

Anyway, that's some great news for people not being able to attend the concert. The only concern I have is how much bandwidth pressure the stream will resist. Can we widely share this link? Will it break if I post it over at GAF for people to tune in?

I have this to relay from Thomas:

Btw, there should be no worries about traffic/the Video Streaming servers. The WDR is working with some high profile/reliable partners to make that work. Fingers crossed!

Kind Regards
Thomas

Okay, I'll go nuts and spread it widely one day prior. :3333:

Also, thanks Thomas for another innovation! :)

I just read that the show will be moderated by Daniel Hartwich. If there's one person on German television I cannot stand, it's him. Mathias Opdenhövel did a surpringly okay job last year but if the trend continues, next year we're going to get Thomas Gottschalk :x

Hans Ernst "Bildschirmspiele" Hanten won't appear, so someone has to fill the role of the gluttonous crétin.

Btw. Prime Blue, what about you regarding the meeting? ;)

Just got back from a long day at Funkhaus am Wallrafplatz (hey, that's where Symphonic Shades took place).
I attended the 4pm game music event. They started with the Fanfare we already know and then showed the top 3 videos of a contest by pupils to make a short movie to the Gem'X theme. Arnie Roth was the conductor by the way.

Then it started becoming really interesting because next up was a Kingdom Hearts medley, around 8 minutes. Of those few songs I know from the series they chose my favorite ones and it was really amazing. This was also the first time I saw Benyamin Nuss performing and he did a great job. I liked his performance much more than whoever played the piano last year at Symphonic Shades.
What I found to be a little annoying were all those crying babies (there were approx. 3 of them) who disturbed the performance. I hope we don't have too many of those next saturday.

Last was the Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross medley. This had a couple of nice (and short) surprises - and one I was really disappointed with - but I'm not going to spoil anything. But counting the times I got goosebumps CT/CC certainly won the show :D
And this was mostly due to Ronny Barrak playing the percussions. This man is awesome.

The arrangements certainly felt fresh and I can't wait to see how Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana turn out.

As you can see most of the crew was already present and after the show I also saw Thomas Böcker and Jonne Valtonen exit the venue. Though I didn't approach them as I was standing in line to get back inside.

I watched a couple of other events and later was surprised to find Ronny Barrak going around the Funkhaus. I asked him whether what we saw today was already half of next Saturday's show and he said those were just short versions..I was already worrying about that!

So much for today, now I'm really counting the days till Saturday.

Hey guys, so I'm going to be in Stuttgart first, and I had planned on taking a train to Cologne, but I've heard it's very expensive (Roughly 200 US dollars one way). Is this true, and do you have any recommendations as far as travel between cities is concerned?

EDIT: On further research on my own, it looks like I can use the bahn.de website and the price is about 165 Euro's for a rountrip. That sound about right?

Uh...
 

Blargh! I'm going to be mountain climbing on the 12th! Is someone going to record the webcast for those of us who won't have internet access on sept 12?

Phatcorns: Just did a research and sounds right if you choose the normal price. If you have ICQ or MSN feel free to contact me and maybe we can get your drive a bit cheaper.

No offense, but these concert trips are very personal experiences to me. It's just the music and me, in a strange city. Sort of a joyful feeling of solitude. I wouldn't want to deviate from it by "dedicating" myself to anyone.



I'm once again recording the concert from the digital WDR4 channel, but won't release it if there's a CD release. I'm positive that other people will upload it, though.

I think I could take part both before and after the concert. We'll (me and my sister) be staying the night from Saturday to Sunday at one of my sister's friend's family's house (is this even correct grammar??). After that (on Sunday) I'm taking my train back to home :)

I dunno how long I can stay with you guys after the concert. Maybe I'll have to return just right away (I don't feel like ringing their bell at 2:00 in the morning...)

Prime Blue: No problem. :)

LiquidAcid: Of course, nobody is forced to stay with us all night.


EDIT: A friend of mine is offering three tickets for Saturday's concert! They're all in row 5 in the B block. Two are for the normal price and one for the (discounted) student price. If you have (more) friends or family who want to attend the concert, send me a PM with your messenger data and I forward it to my friend.

I think we have a winner for the smartest auction.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/7758/clipboard01ne.png

I'd like to emphasize on this. I really want to show the concert to a few people who can neither attend nor watch the stream Saturday evening.
Since I can't record the video-stream myself, if somebody takes the task I'd be eternally thankful.

I'm instructing someone to make a recording from the high-quality digital WDR4 channel while I'm at the concert.

Unfortunately, that means that I won't be able to grab the video stream simultaneously. So I'd appreciate if someone could save the broadband video stream with GetASFStream.
It is very easy to do and I just tried it myself with a radio broadcast. Works just fine.

And with that, I'm off. Enjoy, people!

The concert just started. Live feed of the concert available at symphonicfantasies.com

Pretty cool that they're live streaming this. I'm watching now.

Teioh and I are both recording the feed, so hopefully we'll have a good video copy between the two of us.

The Secret of Mana section is beautiful.

Someone needs to record this. I just joined it and I think they are in paused. Can't wait for it to start! :-D
It's starting again....Please someone needs to rip this! LOL :-D

Additional Spam:
Simply awesome! Words can't describe how this concert was. I missed the first half though... Can't wait till somebody post this because I wanna see the first half! LOL :-D

Here's my recording, which includes both video and audio. I'm not sure if there was a feed that was a larger size than this one. It's quite small, but still watchable (and listenable.)

megaupload.com/?d=H5MB4OL7

I'm regretting my decision not to go; it was a great concert.

I just got home from Cologne a few minutes ago. The concert was simply stunning. I had tears in my eyes at times, especially with the Mana songs; experimental, yes, but it all completely caught the atmosphere, the feel of the game. I loved how many 'uncommon' instruments were used, and the originality of it all. But what really caught my attention was the fact that the audience was so *silent* during the performances. Clearly, this was a devoted fan audience. During the first half I didn't hear so much as a cough, during the second half a few behind me, but I've never before been to a concert where the audience behaved so well. Obviously, nobody wanted to miss anything!
I'm also still on a high from meeting the composers. I didn't think I'd get the ever see these people in real life, let alone at a concert in their honor, and get their autographs!

You are so lucky Dallista. I wished I was ever near there. LOL :-D Anyways... it was indeed an awesome concert without a fact. One of my most memorable moments was when they teased "One-Winged Angel". It was so epic. The Chrono Segment was simply awesome. The Prisoners of Fate was so beautifully arranged that it was mind blowing. It made me remember how epic the battle was in CC when I first played the game. This was an awesome concert. Can't wait to see it again...

I'm about 1.5 hours by car from Cologne, but in the weekends, that's manageable by car (traffic is murder during working days, which is why I opted for Cologne instead of Oberhausen, although I now wish I'd gone to both!). It was more than worth the drive. I loved each and every single song they performed, but was definitely most pleasantly surprised with Secret of Mana. And the guy on that special drum thing was just amazing (I'm doped on up three migraine painkillers, I cannot for the life of me remember what that instrument was called, haha.).
As much as I adored the concert (*please* let there be a CD release), I think what really warmed my heart was the reception these composers and everybody else involved with the concert got from the audience, and the request for an encore; they were treated almost like pop stars, heh!
Concerts like these should be done more often; it's the perfect way to get a younger audience into the concert halls.

I was there as well and i had some mixed feelings. There were great episodes, without question, but some arrangements seemed raw to me. For example, at the final fantasy prelude, they didn't really bring out the main melody that usually plays after the famous arpeggio accompaniment has run through once. also, i think the drum player was overrated, he should have just been a non-soloist in the orchestra. the drum solo he did at the encore was awfully long (2m15s) and didn't have anything to do with game music, it didn't even sound very impressive to me. not to mention the moderator with his sometimes flat and inappropiate comments..

but i don't want to lament too much here, it was still a great concert and i'll have to listen to it again to see if i don't just need time to appreciate some of the arrangements.. and kingdom hearts and secret of mana were superb anyways.

by the way, the asf posted here by squirrel is pretty low quality, are you sure there wasn't a higher quality stream? the sound-only radio broadcast probably has a better sound quality anyways, so it would be great to have that as well

edit: found this HQ cut:
http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=symphonic+fantasies

edit2: most of it is already posted on youtube:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...postcount=1047

Just got home from the concert. It was epic.

Im at an internet cafe in germanz posting this and let me just saz that last night#s concert was absolutelz mindblowing! The concert hall is ridiculouslz beautiful and the sound is all acoustic, so I was verz pleased with that.

I got there about an hour earlz, but the line to meet the composers was too long. So I walked around the venue taking pictures of the people and the lines. Also took lots of stalker photos of the composers, haha! Then I just sat and watched the composers signing and talked to some nice German fellows from I think the squaresound or sqexmusic forums.

So then I headed over to mz area and got inside when the doors opened. Took some pictures and had prettz good seats. I switched with mz brother#s seat after the intermission though.

The arrangements were incredible and the Chrono Trigger segment was definitelz the best. For starters, the surprise theme was SO perfect and in retrospect so obvious. And it was great how at the end of the piece each song#s melodz made an appearance. Oh, and the surprise Twinkle Twinkle Holidazs in the kingdom hearts was great too. That is one of mz verz favorite songs ever!

The encore was THE BEST of the whole evening though. It started with Destati and I was like, no one winged angel? But I realiyed it was one song from each game. All in all, worth the trip across the world and I#m so glad I went. I just wish I could have found the internet beforehand and met up with zou guzs! Oh well,

Tadaima! It was a great evening and the concert hall was optically and acoustically awesome. My favorite suite was the Chrono one but the award for the most innovative goes to Secret of Mana.

My photos coming soon!

Phat: Sorry that I couldn't help you. :(

Wow, where did the Super High Res feed come from? I was stuck watching the postage stamp window.

My favorite was also the Secret of Mana section. Also, there were several times where it seemed like the arranger(s) was (were) chanelling Claude Debussy, particularly in the vocal sections.

hmm interesting point squirrel, have to look for that when i listen to it again.

here's a 256kbs mp3 cut:
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

edit: there's an error in the second track, secret of mana, at about 8:26, where it stops and repeats from some seconds earlier. should be repairable though.

along to the HQ video stream cuts:
symphonic fantasies | isoHunt - the BitTorrent and P2P search engine

and the youtube postings (just look for it on YT):
NeoGAF - View Single Post - Symphonic Fantasies (SE concert in Cologne) will be LIVE STREAMED tomorrow 12.09.2009

Photos are up. Enjoy! Click me

I also took a bunch of pictures and videos at the venue, but they're not really that interesting. Only posted a few pics here. Symphonic Fantasies pictures by dallista - Photobucket
Hamu-Sumo, I think I saw you and Teioh very briefly yesterday, right? I arrived at Cologne pretty late, past 4 pm, and happened to catch you guys sitting at the MacDo, but by the time I'd parked the car and gotten back there, you were gone, and I still wanted to do some shopping, so figured I might as well just say hi at the Philharmonie. I arrived there around 5.45 pm, I think, and ended up with maybe 30/40 people ahead of me in the queue, so that was nice. :-) Anyway, I just happened to catch you standing at the queue when I was standing on the stairs. You and especially Teioh will have to forgive me if I came across as overly hyper; I was a bit high on migraine painkillers (which thankfully did their job and kicked the pain about five minutes before the concert started!).

Ah Dallista, no worries. You mentioned that you had seen us at McDonalds when we met at the venue and I'd say we were all hyper shortly before the concert started :D And it's even more exciting when this is your first concert. Some of these pictures nicely show how crowded it was. I wouldn't be surprised if only half the people standing in line were able to get their autographs but I lost track of it later.

Also about the attendees, I never heard any coughs and I was pleasantly surprised not to spot any Cosplayers.
This really was a prime example of a good game music concert and I think this feeling was also delivered via the video stream.

Yeah, the people in the audience were so well behaved! I only heard a few coughs somewhere behind me after the break, but only a couple. I've been to enough concerts to know this was really special in that regard.

There's just no way everybody in the queue could've gotten autographs; there were way too many people. It did seem to me as if people got more than one item per composer autographed; if so, maybe they should have had a restriction placed on that to get more people through the line.

I'm definitely gonna keep a closer eye on news about such events; if there's another concert next year in the Nordrhein-Westfalen area, I'm so there!


BTW Maybe a stupid question, but is there a list somewhere of all the songs played in each suite? I'm pretty sure I failed to recognize one or two bits, particularly in the Mana suite.

It sounds like it was another successful event! Wish I could have been there. Congrats to Thomas and the team for putting on another great show!

It was an epic show, and great meeting Teioh and Hamu-Sumo again, much love to you two.

Got to hang out with Uematsu alot, so rad

Awesome stuff. Thanks for posting the links, Sorcerer88!

Now to go about converting this to mkv, since I absolutely despise the ASF format, necessary as it may be for streaming. It'd be great if translated transcriptions are available so we can splice them in.

In any case, from the few snippets of what I've listened to, the choir was used quite often. I could not really tell, so does anyone know the language they sang in?

Finally, any idea where we could go about securing translations for the German language emceeing? :D

The choir was singing in Latin.

I can do a translation if nobody else wants but need the concert on my harddrive first.

Excellent! All we need is a German-to-English translator, and someone knowledgeable about VGM (to identify tracks) and we can have some sort of subbing project :)

Provided, of course, that it won't get GFF in any sort of trouble! Think it will?

Great idea, most of the pieces have already been identified on YT in KajunW's videos, except for the Kingdom Hearts medley i'm afraid:

YouTube - Symphonic Fantasies - Final Fantasy medley part 1/2
YouTube - Symphonic Fantasies - Chrono medley part 1/2
YouTube - Symphonic Fantasies - Secret of Mana medley part 1/2
YouTube - Symphonic Fantasies - Final Boss Medley

KH:
YouTube - Symphonic Fantasies - Kingdom Hearts medley part 1/2

if someone can post the times there, i'm sure Kajun will edit them into the video comments.

i could do a translation of the moderation, if subbing is really serious. The only thing i don't like about this is the moderator himself. He's often polemic and even insulting to the composers and musicians. one of his quotes: "In case you wondered why the moderator has become so fat this year, it was a different one last time."
it's actually more self-insulting, but it's rather displaced for a concert.

i've tried converting the asfs into avi xvid, but there's an audioshift unfortunately. i've worked it out to about -1150ms, but i can't get more precise than about 25-50ms. i guess it's xvid that does the desynching frequently.

edit: there's a playlist of all the original songs that were put into the arrangements, a pretty cool idea i think:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_lis...CAC6B97D609A7F

KajunW who uploaded the concert on YouTube did a good listing. (Example: Click) We can ask him to use it.

EDIT: Damn, was too slow. :D

Epic!
I think this word describes the concert best ;-) (I'm joining Teioh here, as we already planned at the concert *g*)

First of all I want to say that I really liked all four suites, so it's a tough job to rate them. I also knew all the tracks which were used for the suites. I have never played Kingdom Hearts, so maybe I'm not that good for judging how the music works in the game (I usually appreciate a track a lot more if it works for the situation in the game). However I played both Chrono Trigger Chrono Cross (and even Radical Dreamers), and also parts 7, 8,9 and 10 of the Final Fantasy series (still playing part 10 at the moment). Seiken Densetsu 2 / Secret of Mana goes without saying, I could even say it started my journey into the VGM world. It was also my first homemade gamerip of a SNES game on tape. Sadly the tape got lost some time ago :(

Anyway, I would place Seiken Densetsu on first position, even if I "liked" the Chrono suite better (it's one of my favorite games). However the arranging work for this title was exceptionally good. I would never have imagined to use the choir to simulate the various weather effect / sounds they did. I also was very sceptical when I saw that they included "The Oracle" into the suite, but it really turned out very good. All in all the suite sounded very natural and organic, meaning that I did no hear any harsh or unnatural / unpleasant transitions between the different "segments". This organic feeling applies to all the suites, so from my perspective Jonne Valtonen did a wonderful job.

Next and therefore on the second place comes the Chrono Suite. I consider myself a big fan of the Chrono series. The combination of RPG, the time-travel setting, the awesome storyline (and of course storytelling) and how they connected the Chrono Cross storyline to the Chrono Trigger one, everything of this three games makes the series into a real gem for me.
I also consider Chrono Cross one of the best works by Yasunori Mitsuda, who is moreover one of my favorite composers. Therefore I was very eager to hear how the arranging turned out. Large parts of the Chrono Cross soundtrack are very acoustic, so I can imagine that the arranging was a tricky job.

I really liked it how they started with the "The Premonition" track from CT and quickly transitioned into "Scars of Time" from CC, one of my favorite tracks on the CC album. Speaking of "Scars of Time", I think I was a good decision to use this track as a "frame" for the suite (what I mean is that the suite begins with the mix of "The Premonition" and "Scars of Time" and also ends with "Scars of Time"). It's a very powerful track, but also has it's soft moments - a good choice for the suite's finale.

After a bit more of "Scars of Time" comes the "Chrono Trigger" segment. I don't think I have to say much here. We already know lots of orchestrated versions of the main theme, but hearing it live is just so different! :cool:

(more to come)

EDIT:
@Zergrinch: The ASF contains WMV3 encoded videa and WMA audio. I don't think you can mux the container into a Matroska one without reencoding the whole stream. Like Sorcerer88 already found out this usually breaks the AV-sync. I don't think there is much we can do here. I'm also not happy with a ASF rip, but the quality is acceptable and at least the AV-sync is correct :)

Additional Spam:
They don't seem to be downloadable, or I'm simple too dumb to operate Picasa properly. I also tried to copy the album over to my Picasa account, but even this does not work.

Thanks a lot for the MP3 cut, Sorcerer88! I don't think there's an error in Secret of Mana Suite, but in Final Fantasy Suite, at 9:42, in the "Clash on the Big Bridge" introduction, there's a little interruption. I couldn't fix this problem, though. :(

I'm getting an error with the Chrono suite, during the end where the video appears to stutter like mad (a few missed frames perhaps?) The rest is fine.

Here's a prelim attempt, on something very readily translate-able (OWA)

http://upload.jetsam.org/images//Sym..._001_49593.png

**Hidden Content**

Sorry, the error is at 8:48, not 8:26, the audio stops and begins from a few seconds earlier. What you've found is another jump, so it seems like this cut is a bit broken and we'll need to find another one.. just to clarify, it's not my cut anyways, found it on a forum. There was another 192 kbs cut which didn't seem to have these problems, although i'm not sure it was fine either, but unfortunately i lost the link.

I'd like to add that the moderator was an idiot. Seems like he tried to be funny, but totally failed in doing so.

Like Sorcerer88 said, his comments were not suited for a concert moderation. Especially his comment about the darbuka (Rony Barrak's goblet drum) was totally misplaced ("... he's bringing along his Darbuka this evening. And no, that's no 22year old russian model..."). That's not even misplaced, that's insulting. I have no idea why they let this jerk do the moderation.

Next time let Winfried Fechner do the moderation, he's 100 times better than this clown. Or let Arnie Roth do it. I mean, there was such a large amount of international guests who probably didn't understand anything from the MC (however that was a real advantage this time...).

Or let multiple persons do the moderation: Every composers introduces his own suite, even if he/she only says a few words. Nobody excepts absolutely perfect english here, but it surely would be 100 times more authentic and likable than what I saw and heard this time.

Got back from Germany last night.

We had the most amazing travel group, about twenty of us Finnish people (with a few others). At first we were only going to the second concert in Cologne, but things... happened.

We had a scheduled unofficial meeting with all the composers on the day of the first concert in Oberhausen. Met with them, got cds signed, asked them a bunch of questions, photos taken (I had a buddy shot with Mitsuda, which was great) etc. Then the manager (or some other handyman) asked if we liked to attend the concert in Oberhausen after all. I had just myself already bought a ticket for myself the day before (there were still very good seats left, btw), but the rest of the group just instantly decided to hop on a train to Oberhausen and go see the first concert, for free. So we all went there, but let us not speak of that venue ever again.

The concert in the Philharmonie the next day was excellent. Even though the "solo" pianist really messed up his own part, even the Kingdom Hearts movement was good that day. My affection towards the Secret of Mana one grew even more, and I cried again a little bit during the Chrono movement. The only one that left me almost unemotional was the Final Fantasy suite of all things. Mostly because of the overuse of the Chocobo theme. It's quite an annoying melody, and if it's in the background of every single theme in the medley. GRAAH.

But I have to applaude Jonne Valtonen for his arrangements, they really are inspired and interesting to listen to, after the near-direct translitterations of originals that Play! had, for example. I especially liked how the Secret of Mana suite sounded quite much like something out of Einojuhani Rautavaara's pen. Some clear influences there, that fit like a nail in the head with the weird atmosphere Secret of Mana has all around the game and soundtrack. Nice job.

The MC was quite dull. The Kölsch joke was funny, though. And so true.

Too bad I didn't really have the energy to seek out the GF crew after the concert, I just went with my own regular posse. I briefly tried to listen around the lobby of the concert hall, but all the groups were speaking in English, so I didn't attempt to approach any of them and ask them if it was GF. Silly, shy me.

You're right, now I noticed this jump in "The Oracle" introduction. Is this the 192 kpbs cut that you mentioned? However, the file format is .aac, and isn't splitted in tracks.

MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

Time stamps of course incompatible with the recordings available on the net.

Thanks for the detailed info, Prime Blue. However, "The Other Promise" is missing in Kingdom Hearts Suite. :confused:

I;m pretty sure that Prisoners of Fate also transitions into "To Far Away Times." It's a much slower version, but it is there none the less.

You're right! I forgot to mention this too.

Indeed, I made a mistake there. I inattentively typed "Dearly Beloved" instead of "The Other Promise" and when I checked the list later, I saw that I had "Dearly Beloved" twice, deleted the second entry and put the 4:26-7:30 part in the brackets in the first line.

You mean the harp at 10:54, before the actual OST beginning of "Prisoners of Fate"?

Thanks for clarifying, Prime Blue.

In this YouTube video is possible to listen the "To Far Away Times" melody in 3:13, after "Prisoners of Fate".
YouTube - Symphonic Fantasies - Chrono medley part 2/2

Yeah, that's where I was talking about Revoc! On a similar note, I just love the whole layering of various themes in the Chrono suite.

Kikuta already posted a blog entry about the concert. Apparently, he was very surprised about being picked up from Cologne Central Station by Mr. and Mrs. Böcker as he couldn't imagine that, in addition to the concert management, those two also take care of the guests themselves. Looks like that familial hospitality was very enjoyable for him.

And, it turns out he didn't even ask which compositions were selected for the concert, and when he first heard the arrangement, he found it to be very unusual and daring. He enjoyed the Philharmonie concert very much and found it to be "like a dream".

Yoko Shimomura wrote about Symphonic Fantasies in midiplex too.

Rather a listen than a show.


Speaking of which, I didn't even post my impressions yet. I decided not to write a complete review as I couldn't express the experience with words and it wouldn't do the concert justice. Besides, other people have taken it upon themselves to go into great detail about the event. I have some things to remark, though. The criticism first:

• The moderator was completely unfitting for the event, at times making jokes that came off disrespectful to the composers (about Kikuta: "And, in addition to that, he probably composes music for anime series, picking his nose while in a traffic jam"), taking away a lot of credit for Mitsuda, and compulsively trying to create an acceptive mood in the audience ("Stimmung") by asking attendants how they feel, if they enjoy the concert etc. Making the audience "beg" for an encore by crying out loud was equally embarrassing. You could have had that at least a bit more classy: "You know, we still have one additional piece prepared for you. Would you like to hear it?"
  Opdenhövel was fine last year, but I think a moderator from the public broadcasters would be the best choice (I would like to have Fechner on stage, even: he did the emceeing for PROMS before). But, well, anyone is better than JBK...
  
• Somehow, the MC team also got a few names wrong. Roth was constantly pronounced "Rooth" and Hiroki Kikuta was given as "Yuki Hiroki" first (which was also the name in a faulty version of the WDR4 program on their site).
  
• The WDR is one of the biggest German broadcasters and the live video stream was a godly innovation, but the chroma key image looks a bit...spartan. For comparison, see the VOICES DVD right.
  http://i34.tinypic.com/zmjlac.png
  
• Actually, the whole CI seemed a bit too quirky for such a festive event. I don't know if Stefan Ellerich from EllisDesign was responsible for it, as it would be a heavy department from his very noble previous works.

That said, these were just minor problems. Comparing the concert to a painting, one could say that the "frame" was a bit dirty but the picture itself, the music, was flawless. It was my favorite SGMC so far (with the fourth one in 2006 coming immediately after and the 5th SGMC ranking in third). The Secret of Mana suite was my most anticipated and it easily elevated up to the top as my favorite arrangement of this evening. As Mr. Kikuta said, very unusual and daring, and that's what made it so attractive to me. The usage of the orchestra and choir for sound effects was brilliant, kudos to Jonne! The whistling in "Eternal Recurrence" sounded like the laments of Undine. For a few seconds, at the very end of the suite, I closed my eyes and I could have sworn I stood in front of the Tree of Mana. Simply put: touching and innovative, two things you can always expect from this concert series.

EDIT: Funny little sidenote I forgot to mention...

One female violinist of the orchestra was so impressed with Barrak's improvisation that she sat there with her jaw wide open for the whole solo, shaking her head in disbelief at the moment where the audience started to clap. Unfortunately, the camera didn't catch her so the stream viewers couldn't see it. :D

Actually I wrote them a mail about this error. This was maybe a bit more than one week before the concert, but I didn't check if they really fixed it. However they replied rather quickly (<24h) that they had forwarded my mail to the responsible person.

I must say, I was disappointed with certain aspects of the Final Fantasy suite. Compared to the Chrono suite, it didn't seem as cohesive. Of course, the choppiness and sudden breaks were among the suite's best moments -- what I'm talking about is rather an almost cut-and-paste feel it had... namely, the way that Prelude and Bombing Mission were basically just Hamaguchi's arrangements with a few alterations. That was a big let down. Speaking of Bombing Mission, its inclusion felt somewhat redundant after hearing such a wonderful rendition of the FF7 battle theme. We don't need two FF7 action pieces in such limited space. It seems like that time should have been given to a world map theme or something.

I was glad that they didn't play One Winged Angel for the billionth time. Well, they did eventually... but not without poking a dozen holes in it.

While on the subject of the encore, I think World Revolution would have been a better final boss theme representing the Chrono Series.

I don't mean to sound like a whiner, because it was an awesome concert. I just wanted to address those things.

monferd: Maybe World Revolution is too complex to put it for less than two minutes in a medley but I agree with you it represents the "final boss" theme more than Lavos' Theme.

Prime Blue: I definitely second your wish for Fechner as the MC. I like his voice and how he describe things. While listening to him you know that he knows what he talks about. If he says he's too old for the rather young audience I have strongly to deny that.
Furthermore, Opdenhövel was also fine last year.

Chrono Trigger has three Lavos battle theme. Yes, World Revolution sounds the most grand, but to use the "final" boss battle theme would mean using the less decidedly grand (and plainly named "Last Battle" :)

Well, in any case, I think we can all agree that hearing World Revolution played by an orchestra would be too awesome for the human mind to comprehend.

And if they threw in Opressed People from FF7, I would probably crap my pants (not just because it would sound amazing, but because I honestly don't think it will ever be arranged). If that happened, I would literally have to get shot in the kneecap to consider it a bad night.

The music was great, but the moderator was a complete... ahem, well, you catch my drift. I was glad I only understood about 90 % of what he said (6 years of high school German and shopping in Germany once every couple of weeks does not a German language expert make), because that was far more than enough to feel utterly embarrassed. I'm at a concert, you twat, not a panto. Ugh.
And the Rooth instead of Roth thing was just too weird. I almost started to believe maybe it *was* really pronounced as Rooth. Really glad to read the MC had it wrong, but really, couldn't they have gotten their facts straight?!

It's a long-time tradition that adults DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT VIDYA(-MUSIC). They show by deliberately making stupid spelling and pronunciation errors that it's a waste of time and effort.

And it's fun to watch/read kids care so much how the name of their precious composer is pronounced. ;)

I agree on the fact that the MC was quite boring. I understood maybe as much as you of the German he spoke, but at least he nailed one joke right on the second night.

Ah, sounds awesome, I think I'll hold off for any sort of high quality recording (if it ever happens) but seems everyone has really positive feedback so far.

I am a sucker for orchestral arrangements...

Just went to Distant Worlds today in Vancouver. That was absolutely amazing! Roth is a very good conductor. Nobuo was supposed to make it but his deadline for FFXIV is the end of October is what they told us, wish I could have met him! Time for bed :(

Symphonic Fantasies will have a CD and digital release!

RPGFan News - Symphonic Fantasies Album Details Revealed

Symphonic Fantasies

I already got the autographs of all the composers in a fan meet earlier the day before the concert (on all my cds of these artists). We chatted about beer with Uematsu, and smoked out some info from Mitsuda about the CCAA (but nothing).

But I'll definitely think about buying the cd anyway - it was a DANDYFINE concert.