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

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

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

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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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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.

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

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.

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

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..

I was speaking idiomatically.

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.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Hamu-Sumo

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'.

Ahh I told you it's gonna be suites 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.

Originally Posted by Dallista

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?

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)

Originally Posted by Zergrinch

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?

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?

FELIPE NO

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

How ya doing, buddy?

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

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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
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.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by monferd

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?

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.

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

Just got home from the concert. It was epic.

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

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 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.

I was speaking idiomatically.