[News] Symphonic Fantasies Concert to Celebrate Music of Square Enix

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.

Originally Posted by Teioh

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

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

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

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.

FELIPE NO