Passion from Eminence

Heh heh, here's my version of Eminence's Passion in Singapore!

You know what they say about time passing you by when you’re having fun! Well, all I can say is that it all passed by in a single instant, it did. The long awaited performance by Eminence’s stable of 5 world-class performers on the 23rd of December 2006 at Singapore’s the Victoria Concert Hall was one of the most unique experiences I have ever experienced in my entire life! Eminence’s Passion band consisted of founder Hiroaki Yura and fellow musician Ayako Ishikawa on the violins, Zane Banks on the guitar, Joshua Hill on percussion and Natalia Raspopova on the Piano. The exalted composer Mr. Yasunori Mitsuda also made a guest appearance with his Bouzouki, a uniquely Greek instrument. An unsurprising choice, really, if you were to notice how he’s been experimenting with so many types of traditional folk instruments in his many recent projects. (More information on the instrument can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouzouki )

I can actually FEEL the sense of anticipation among the audience, and it’s something you’ve come to expect, since it’s Singapore’s first game music-related live performance ever. With it also being Eminence’s first outing out of Australia itself and the first time debut of guitarist Zane Banks, I’m pretty sure a lot of hopes are being pinned on that night itself, and oh boy didn’t they disappoint.

Here is the set they performed:

Hitoshi Sakimoto’s “Digimon Arrangement”
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Is KiRiTe burning up?” from KiRiTe.
Yuki Kajiura’s “Sakura” from Xenosaga II.
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World” from Chrono Cross.
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Pain” from Xenosaga.
Joe Hisaishi’s “Princess Mononoke” from um, well, Princess Mononoke? Heh.
Joe Hisaishi’s “Laputa, Castle in the Sky”, also from the anime of the same name.
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Nocturne” from KiRiTe.
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Radical Dreamers” from Chrono Cross.
Jacob Grade’s classical tune “Tango Jalousie”
Koji Kondo’s “Super Mario Brothers”
Alan Menken & Time Rice’s Aladdin theme song “A Whole New World”
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Sailing to the World”
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “The Azure” from KiRiTe
Yuki Kajiura’s “Mai” from .hack//Liminality
Ko Ohtani’s “Free Bird” from Haibane Renmei, an anime of the same name.
Johanne Brahms' infamous classical piece “Hungarian Dance”
Ko Ohtani’s “Sunlight Earth”, from the puzzle game Shadow of the Colossus.
Pinocchio The Movie’s “When You Wish Upon A Star”
Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre”, a magnificent classical piece.
Joe Hisaishi’s “Two of Us” from his year 2000 album, Shoot the Violist.
Yasunori Mitsuda’s “Time Scar”, from the game Chrono Cross
Yuki Kajiura’s “A Song of Storm and Fire”, song from anime Tsubasa Chronicle.
A Secret of the Mana song for the encore piece.

Not all of the songs played that night were recognizable to me, but then that in itself isn’t good enough a reason to ignore the amount of passion and hard work put into the process of making the whole concert a success. From the strong but sweet-sounding notes emanating from violins, coupled with the skillful guitar strumming and pickings, to the ever-so-light sounds of the triangle, and the light but skillful tinkling of the ivories, even the smallest of details were not left to chance. Each and every instrument played a vital part in everything!

From the electric, the bass, the acoustic, Zane Bank’s remarkable showmanship and professionalism, transitioning from guitar to guitar made it look so easy and natural! I especially loved his guitar playing in Time Scar and Radical Dreamers. It was like I was transported to a whole new world! All of but 20 years of age, his playing is much more mature for someone of his age. Truly spellbinded by his guitar skills. Respect.

Natalia Raspopova’s piano playing was also excellent! Her skillful and seasoned hands ensured that the notes were struck flawlessly throughout the performance, with the pianissimo’s and the forte’s, the crescendo’s and the diminuendo’s skillfully and appropriately applied to each and every piece, personally as a piano player, I bow down to her prowess and huge amount of power she has over her instrument. Heck, the piano was virtually an extension of her body! Though I have to say that many of the pieces disallowed her to truly shine, except for both of the duets with Miss Ayako. Her piano solo of Xenosaga’s Pain was a little too short for my liking. Would have loved it if she was given a longer piece or 2 to perform, but alas.

But seriously, the star of the night was Miss Ayako Ishikawa herself! Her commanding stage presence and her super stellar playing of her violin was.. it was mesmerizing beyond WORDS. Especially through her interpretations of Jacob Grade’s Tango Jalousie and Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, she truly shined in those 2 classical violin pieces. Her duo piece with Hiroaki Yura, Joe Hisaishi’s Two of Us was also spectacular! One can truly feel the sadness with each passing note played..it was scary!..but in a good sorta way. Her level of playing coupled with her stage presence was AWESOME! 5 Stars!

And that’s not to say that Mr. Hiroaki’s level of violin mastery wasn’t outstanding. Heck, his playing was great!, though albeit overshadowed by Miss Ayako’s stage presence. His playing was full of emotion and expression and was totally competent, as one would expect from a world-class violinist. Maybe its due to the fact that Miss Ayako was given more stage time as compared to Mr.Hiroaki. I would also have loved to see a short showcase of his abilities with a duet piece or two with Ms. Natalia Raspopova’s piano playing though, but still stellar playing nevertheless.

How can one forget the oft-forgotten but all-important percussionist? Mr. Joshua Hill did the honors of representing the percussionists of Eminence in Singapore, and he didn’t disappoint, although he did made a small error in timing in the usage of the stringed-mini-cymbal bell instrument in a small part or two. With it being quite a unique sounding instrument, a slight misjudgment in this caused a slight interference in the flow of the piece, but a commendable performance overall.

Last but not least, Mr. Yasunori Mitsuda himself! He played the Bouzouki in a few of the pieces performed, most of them his own, if I remember correctly. It sounded very unique, that much I can say, though it wasn’t that outstanding. Most of the sound from his instrument were drowned out by the louder more outstanding instruments on stage, though there WAS one piece which the Bouzouki was louder than usual, and for the first time I managed a ‘glimpse’ of what the instrument was supposed to sound like. Well, Mr. Yasunori IS a composer after all, and I can vaguely remember him saying in the transcripts of one of the interviews with him that he wasn’t that confident of performing live. His performance at Passion was rather more of a filler rather than one of importance, though that doesn’t make him any less important in the success of Passion.

I can safely say that many attendees at Passion hold Mr. Yasunori to the highest order of respect, and his composed pieces have guided many a gamer through the happy and sad moments in many, many games. His presence alone made the price of the ticket well worth it. Add that to the excellently outstanding performance of Eminence, it was, as the mastercard ad puts it, priceless. I would personally like to thank Eminence and everyone who had made the concert here in Singapore possible, from the bottom of my (broken, haha! Kidding!) heart. You have given many game music aficionados in Singapore a taste of what is to come, and I believe I speak for most, if not all of the them, when I say, please DO visit our sunny island again!

I have a short picture walkthrough for the event..but apparently I'm not allowed to post any links or pictures at my level. Bahx. I could use my old GFF account here. haha. Anyone have any idea on when I could post URLs and pictures? ^^;

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Heh, don't get me wrong ya? ^^; The old account I'm referring to was the one I had back before the crash happened..I'm pretttty sure it was high enough to post URLs and pictures. Sigh. Now so many people have gone. Oh well..time to make some new friends!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by -=SeRaPH=-

Aww... Why do so many people think Aya did Radical Dreamers ~_~ lol

Anyway, Mr Mitsuda and I've worked on a new arrangement of Radical Dreamers using a double dubb. It'll be out on the Passion CD which will be out in a month or so.

Also, Pain from Xenosaga, the piano is the original music used in the soundtrack, same bar numbers, keys and even tempo (Mr Mitsuda was in charge!). The recording and performances were overseen by Mr Sakimoto and Mr Mitsuda, so are most of the arrangement so there should be not much mistakes there~

I hope you guys all enjoyed the concert!

heh. Hi Seraph! haha. I damn well did enjoy the concert! I'm patiently awaiting the release of the Passion recording. I really loved the stuffs you guys did. Fantabulous! As for 'Pain', not that the piece was erroneous in ANY way, just that it could have been extended just a tad bit more? ^^; That's just my personal opinion, heh.

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Just out of curiosity, what was your old user name, KaneSlayer? I might have talked to you before on GFF. The only kinsmen I've seen around here (or can remember) are ChronoX, Arc, Wallace and someone with a Zidane user name followed by a string of numbers. I guess Bigblah might count since he studies in Singapore but I never did meet him once. :P

My old username's either KaneSlayer or Tachikawa..I'm not too sure. Its probably the former. In passing, I think I shoulda seen ya in the FTP forums. I've talked to a few too, so I can't actually recall...lol. Just how many singaporeans do we have here anyways? :P

How ya doing, buddy?