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.