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

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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!

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

Fanfare overture (3:13)


Fantasy I
=========
Dearly Beloved (0:00-0:20, 9:26-12:51, 13:41-14:01, 14:29-14:50)
Sora (0:21-1:37, 2:51-3:04, 4:19-4:25, 12:34-12:39)
Hand in Hand (1:38-2:50, 3:05-3:20, 14:51-16:25)
Kairi (3:21-4:18)
The Other Promise (4:26-7:30)
Happy Holidays! (7:31-9:25)
A Fight to the Death (12:52-14:57)


Fantasy II
==========
Fear of the Heavens (0:00-4:46, 8:03-8:26, 10:11-11:18, 16:09-18:12)
Into the Thick of it (4:47-6:18)
Eternal Recurrence (6:19-8:02, 9:45-10:10)
The Oracle (8:27-8:40, 11:19-13:16)
Prophecy (8:41-9:44)
Phantom and...A Rose... (13:17-16:08)


Fantasy III
===========
A Premonition (0:00-0:30, 12:30-13:09)
Scars of Time (0:19-3:33, 3:45-4:25, 7:06-7:20, 12:39-13:14, 16:05-17:17)
Battle with Magus (1:16-1:25, 3:34-3:44, 8:26-8:40, 12:39-14:43)
Chrono Trigger (2:16-3:33, 16:23-17:17)
Peaceful Days (4:26-6:12)
Gale (6:13-8:25)
Brink of Death (6:22-8:25)
Prisoners of Fate (8:41-11:52)
Outskirts of Time (11:53-12:29)
Frog's Theme (14:44-16:22)


Fantasy IV
==========
Prelude (0:00-2:11)
Let the Battles Begin! (2:12-4:02)
One-Winged Angel (4:03-4:07)
Cologne de Chocobo (4:08-6:22, 11:43-12:11)
Phantom Forest (6:23-9:21)
Battle at the Big Bridge (9:22-11:21)
Final Fantasy (11:22-11:42, 14:35-18:07)
Bombing Mission (12:12-14:34)


Encore
======
Destati (0:00-1:31)
Meridian Dance (1:32-3:01)
Lavos's Theme (3:02-3:58)
One-Winged Angel (3:59-4:07, 6:23-7:42)
Rony Barrak-Solo (4:08-6:22)
Fanfare finale (7:43-8:06)

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

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Originally Posted by Revoc

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

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.

Originally Posted by ZiggyGo

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

I was speaking idiomatically.

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".

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

Congrats to Thomas and the team for putting on another great show!

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.
  
  
• 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.

FELIPE NO