To Another World and Back
games music concert review
It’s halfway through 2009, and I think by now it is a given that the gaming community as a whole has a soft spot for Nobuo Uematsu and his 22 years of notable compositions. Ever since 1989’s Symphonic Suite in fact, there have been concerts held of his music. Children in Japan’s elementary schools learn Theme of Love from Final Fantasy IV as part of their standard repertoire. There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of remixes and arrangements of his music from nearly every game he’s composed for. People have, within good reason, acknowledged that this man can write great music.
Distant Worlds is an evolution of a concert series that conductor and orchestrator Arnie Roth started back in 2004, inspired by the 20020220 and Tour de Japon concerts in Japan. Originally called Dear Friends, Distant Worlds marked the decision to tour world-wide as opposed to just within the States. Last night, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend one of the performances in Seattle of the latest iteration.
Kicking off the concert right from the get-go, Uematsu himself came out on stage to an uproar of applause and standing ovation. Even without playing a note, the sold-out Beneroya Hall was on its feet to acknowledge the composer as he took his seat down about 10 rows ahead of where I was sitting. From there, standard concert etiquette welcomed the conductor Arnie Roth on stage and the first piece began.
Liberi Fatali from FFVIII seems to be a standard concert opener now, as it has lead off nearly every one up to this point I believe. It was a great opener for the game proper, and it still is a good statement to begin with: strong, but not too elongated. Amusingly, this was the chorus’s only piece for the first half of the concert, so after Fatali they took a seat and remained for the rest of the half.
Moving right along into To Zanarkand from FFX, the piano soloist collaborated with the orchestra on a gorgeous arrangement accompanied with an array of cutscenes from the game, ending fittingly with Yuna dancing over the water for the piece’s conclusion. Afterward, an interesting segue appeared on screen: In-game footage from FFVIII, which got a laugh out of the audience. The party ran across a bridge… until, yep, in comes Don’t Be Afraid, the battle theme from said title accompanied with a battle montage on the screen. Props for the clever transition, though the arrangement itself is the same tried and true one from the orchestral arranged album that I know so well.
One of the most effective video accompaniments of the evening was for the next piece, Aerith’s Theme. Also a familiar arrangement, but the choice of scenes that accompanied it were a very strong accent to the music, concluding with the Holy materia slowly dropping down the stairs and into the water. Following that, a classic medley of tunes from Final Fantasies I through III. Sadly, the on-screen representation was of their PSone remakes and not the original NES titles. However, the gorgeous CG cutscenes from the DS remake of III greatly made up for it in the latter parts.
At this point, I realized that the first half was only half-way done! Like most orchestra performances, the pre-intermission had been greatly front-loaded. A guest classical guitarist (not credited in the program) arrived for the next two pieces: a sweeping arrangement of Dear Friends from FFV and an incredibly epic Vamo ‘alla Flamenco from FFIX. It was quite possibly the best version of it I’ve heard arranged, even though the guitar parts were somewhat drowned out by the orchestra during its climactic moments. Post-concert of course I realized that both arrangements were from the 20020220 concert, though of course I’d never heard them live until now.
The final three pieces of the first half were my favorites up until that point: Beginning with Love Grows, the orchestral version of FFVIII’s Eyes on Me, the arrangement fairly standard from the orchestral album again. However, the entire second half of the piece was accompanied with the scene from VIII’s ending with Laguna and Raine; very fitting considering the song’s significance within the game itself.
The orchestra then launched right into the wonderful Ronfaure arrangement from Tour de Japon. Ronfaure is one of my favorite pieces composed by Uematsu, despite its simplicity in being just the background music for a starter area in an MMORPG. Perhaps it’s because I heard it endlessly while fighting myriad rabbits and giant worms. Concluding the first half was the Final Fantasy Prologue accompanied by a montage of footage from Final Fantasies I through XII (amusing, considering Uematsu’s minimal involvement in 12).
After the intermission, another classic opening theme provided the second half with an appropriate beginning. That opening being, of course,FFVII’s Opening - Bombing Mission. Afterward, an expanded choral arrangement of Fisherman’s Horizon from FFVIII was played. This one caught me by surprise, as it definitely wasn’t the standard arrangement that I’d heard often. It was an improvement however, featuring the choir in a far greater fashion than just the opening and ending of the piece.
For the next piece, the titular Distant Worlds, mezzo-soprano Angela Niederloh took the stage. The combination of Memoro de la Stono, FFXI’s opening theme, with the gorgeous vocals in Distant Worlds really shows how far Uematsu has come as a composer. To me, it still stands as some of his best work. Niederloh did an exceedingly powerful job at vocalizing the latter half of the piece as well, her deep mezzo tone a perfect match for the piece;more so than the pop renditions other vocalists have given it. Also powerful were the visual accompaniments taken from the ending of Chains of Promathia. It surprised me that they’d pay homage to one of the lesser-known stories of the FF series.
Unfortunately, the following two pieces were overshadowed by the previous performance; standard arrangements of FFVIII’s Man With the Machine Gun and the classic Swing de Chocobo. Great arrangements in their own rights, but they were a bit of a lull in the mood going from one operatic song to the next. Machine Gun also had some unfortunate issues with the drum kit parts, the drummer not quite getting the feel enough to stay with the orchestra 100%. It was all remedied, however…
I’ve always wanted to see the opera scene from FFVI performed live, and thankfully Angela Niederloh took the stage again along with Stephen Rumph and Michael Delos to join the orchestra in an epic performance of the operetta Maria and Draco. They even went so far as to conclude the opera itself, a section that in the game was interrupted by the fight with Ultros the octopus. The singers did admirable performances, and as a whole the sequence was my favorite of the evening.
Closing out the program proper was, again overshadowed by the epic operatic nature of the previous piece, a great performance of Terra’s Theme from FFVI. It was, unfortunately, covered up in the latter half with credits for the concert which everyone applauded to rather than letting the piece be performed.
Of course, there was one notable piece lacking from the program notes. Everyone knew it was coming, since it’s a staple encore of nearly every single orchestral game concert. I would have rolled my eyes at its inevitable inclusion, but…Uematsu took the stage before the encore, where conductor Arnie Roth egged him on to sing something. He took a breath, as if to start, but being the goofball that he is, feigned embarrassment and leaned on Roth’s shoulder “No! I can’t do it!” Upon which, Roth suggested that he go sing in the choir… which he did! Scampering back to the right of the Soprano section, Uematsu joined the choir for their performance of FFVII’s epic One-Winged Angel, belting out the chants right along with the rest.
Overall, the performance was an extremely enjoyable experience. The Seattle Symphony was on the top of their game (so to speak), and the soloists all treated the material with the same degree of professionalism as any other classical performance. The Seattle Choral Company, while lost in the background for the first half, laid out a powerful performance in the pieces that they were featured in; specifically the opening strains of Memoro de la Stono.
You may ask, hey, you linked to basically all of these pieces being played on YouTube. Couldn’t I just watch these and be done with it? Well yes, but there’s something that’s simply special about a live orchestral performance that can’t be topped by any recording or video. If you have the chance, I would absolutely recommend paying for good tickets to see this concert live if it comes your way. I could go into a long drawn-out ramble about the decline of interest in orchestra attendence, but sitting in the audience of a sold-out concert hall with as diverse a crowd as you could come by… I felt encouraged that the medium isn’t lost just yet.
