Game Music Orchestra Galore
(This took me three days of my free time in total to write...man...)
Alright, I think its high time I return from my long hiatus on LJ - the event announcements and event planning I posted for some gathering occasions do not count. In fact, my quick summary of Fantasy Comes Alive last Friday night was the prelude to what I hope will be my usual sporadic post on these here parts of the Internet.
Without further ado, let's get down to the concert reviews...
Firstly, this will preempt my life update over the last two years. Why? Simply put, it has to do with timeliness and proximity of events - Journalism speak...never could let it go. Okay, now to the two symphony orchestras that took place in April.
Let's start with Video Games Live KL (VGL KL). KL's first...and without a doubt, not KL's last! The so called National Orchestra that played was half the size of the full orchestra that I usually see at such events (having seen PLAY! and FF: Distant Worlds prior). Even the choir accompaniment for VGL KL is smallish - counting at just over a dozen singers, possibly less than 25.
The small size, however, did not detract them from playing their heart out. From the strings, to the brass, and the rock elements, everything played out with great crescendos and spot-on harmonies.
Beginning with the nostalgic sound effects of Pong, VGL kicked off the evening with the National Symphony Orchestra playing through a delightful music medley featuring sound effects and jingles from games like Contra, Space Invaders, Tetris, Gradius, Ghost and Goblins, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Duck Hunt, and Outrun.
The evening's host, Tommy Tallarico, jumped onto stage with his over the top acts and never-ending energy right after. as he kept the festivities lively throughout the evening.
With the intros done, it was right back into the thick of the action as the battle themes from the Metal Gear Solid games, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, World of Warcraft, and Halo came up. I was so tempted to stand up straight and throw a salute during the MGS score but the warning of a sharp heel kick if I ever do that from the person behind kept me glued to my seat.
Interspersed among that were medleys from Mario, Sonic, and Rockman - all of them were must-haves in any videogame orchestra show. Now classics like these are a dime-a-dozen and I have listened to such medleys at PLAY!. How it differs here: Mario had no Flower/Star theme, a pity that, while Sonic used all the visuals from every Sonic game ever made, including the upcoming Sonic 4: Episode 1. Rockman is...well, Rockman with all the themes from each series being played. Sadly, no Rockman X like I had hoped...is it the black sheep of the music world or something?
Spicing things up further were special features like the Disney-backed rendition of Hikari from Kingdom Hearts, Norihiko Hibino, the composer for Metal Gear Solid III: Snake Eater, playing a saxophone solo to the song of the same name and renowned “Flute Link” performing an excellent medley rendition of Zelda music with the orchestra. Hearing the sweet melodies of the saxophone crooning the memorable Snake~~ Eater~~~~ was something that can only be experienced live and to see "Flute Link" doing the battle of the melodies with her fairy companion was quite a sight. Definitely real treats for Malaysian gamers!
Then there is the ending...and oh how sweet it was! The great finisher, as expected by so many, is the infamous One-winged Angel from FFVII. While this was an orchestra re-arrangement, many could tell that the rendition and arrangement played hailed from the Advent Children soundtrack. Hotshot Tallarico took centre stage with his ax to play the guitar solos and riffs. So powerful and epic was the music playing that even the guy on the cello was headbanging to the song. Ruining the whole thing, however, was the cosplay pictures being aired on the screen...what an 'epic' way to ruined a great piece.
And for the encore...oh my the encore...like PLAY! and Distant Worlds, we get two!! The crowd did not let up as they cajoled, cheered, shouted and demanded for more. And so aiming to please, they got it in spades as the orchestra geared up for a Castlevania medley, which was very impressive mind you, and the long awaited Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross medley. Now this...this is how the show should end! While I can't fully appreciate Chrono Trigger, but to hear the quiet, hollow hymns of Time Scar...that made my night!
Was it great?
You can bet your socks it was! Despite the orchestra not being at its full size, the members of the choir totalling to a dozen at a glance, and the hall not being designed acoustically for a show like VGL, the crowd more than made up for it with their enthusiasm. Every impressive score and familiar tune that appears got all of us into a cheering and whooping frenzy.
Does that make it epic then?
For some parts yes, like the saxophone solo for the Snake Eater segment, which was a very impressive jazz rendition of the original song. There were also the Sonic and Metal Gear Solid medleys, both of which left lasting impressions and brought up deep-rooted memories of the good times these games filled-up my gaming life with. Even VGL’s orchestral arrangement of Hikari managed to touch my heartstrings.
Since VGL KL was not enough for me, I made my way down to Singapore two weeks after to catch the island nation's very own videogame and anime orchestra - Fantasy Comes Alive! (Fantasy). Designed, developed, and arranged wholly in Singapore, Fantasy is a show that takes its inspiration from previous videogame and anime music orchestras that played there over the last five years.
The price of the tickets were remarkably cheaper than all the shows I been to and offers something none have bothered to feature: updated anime and videogame music. Interestingly, the Cultural Hall in NUS was the selected venue, a good venue in my book as it is acoustically ready for a proper symphony orchestra. With an impressive playlist ranging from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, Valkyria Chronicles, Odin Sphere, Evangelion, Macross Frontier, Totoro and Final Fantasy VIII, IX, X, XII, and Tactics A2 along with an auspicious venue, I'd imagine the Singapore Symphony or a group of that level would be playing.
Such thoughts came crashing down, when I saw how little instruments and seats were on the stage (easily two dozen). I sat down feeling sorely disappointed. I mean, an orchestra with less than 30 musicians...this is more of a mish-mash ensemble who are trying to emulate a proper symphony orchestra. Even the choir was tiny...bearing less than 12 singers, if not more than 15. I was expecting a sad show for the entire evening so I figured, might as well bear with it.
How wrong I was...
Fantasy should not be labelled as a symphony orchestra...it should be called a chamber orchestra seeing the tiny presence the musicians had on stage. However, despite the small stature, the team behind this event came up with a unique concept of making each instrument group perform a solo for every piece played. Unprecedented!
The show kicked off with a Yuki Kajiura piece from Tsubasa (one of the slower BGMs) featuring a strings solo with chamber accompaniment, then Time Scar with a brass/piano duet and guitar solo mix, and a simulated symphony with Granado Espada. How is that not epic?! I mean...every score on the playlist had an instrument group be the lead solo. It's simply amazing!!
The bonus for us is having to see, meet, and listen to, not one, but two VIPs: the highly anticipated Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer of famous titles like Vagrant Story, FFXII, Valkyria Chronicles, Odin Sphere, and Romeo x Juliet, and Hideki Sakamoto, the man behind the dark scores of the Yakuza series and the amusing jingles of Echochrome.
The two came up between each music set, all of which played out hard and fast, leaving no room for us to rest and recover from each powerful rendition. The entire show was just a shy of being epic. It could've been better if the emcee did not fumble so much and if the multimedia was turned off! Seriously! For 3/4 of the time, the projection only featured screen savers, many mistakes on the video-guy's part (a Mac desktop showed up on screen during Castlevania and wrong videos for one act...sigh), and random backgrounds. I'd rather they shut off the projector and let us enjoy the music on its own merits.
Other memorable pieces:
- Valkyria Chronicles' Succeeded Wish (violin and flute duet) - one of the two tracks that I teared up at
- two samples from Echochrome's soundtrack (violins only)
- Macross Frontier's Aimo ~Tori no Hito~ (violin, piano, and viola duet/solos with drum and bass accompaniment)
- FFVIII's Eyes on Me (piano/flute solo with chamber accompaniment)
- Odin Sphere's Main Theme (strings solo with brass and piano accompaniment)
- Bleach random BGM (strings and winds duet with chamber accompaniment) - the one with Rukia trapped in the tower
- Sora no Woto's opening theme (full chamber)
- Romeo and Juliet's ending theme (full chamber)
The other tracks like Rockman (medley), Tetris (main theme - boring, but had a very amusing game play video), FMA (Kyoudai BGM), Evangelion (Cruel Angel Thesis), Castlevania (battle theme), and Howl's Moving Castle (main theme) didn't really stand out for me. In fact, I was really bugged out that Fantasy's rendition of Cruel Angel Thesis fizzled along...no oomph there.
Capping things for the evening was the epic encores that the crowd demanded for. Again, in breaking new grounds, Fantasy played three tracks for the encore: the Fire/Ice theme from Tsubasa, Succeeded Wish from Valkyria Chronicles, and Howl's Moving Castle main theme. Sadly, I missed out on them (and so cannot really say much about it) since I waited outside to be one of the first three to get Sakimoto's autograph for dmjewelle and a friend of mine.
Overall, I'd say Fantasy was more a Kajiura and Sakimoto tribute as so many of the scores on the playlist are their's. It certainly made this fanboy very happy. Now let's see if KL can come up with something like that as well and play more great videogame music from other composers like Motoi Sakuraba, Yasunori Mitsuda, and Joe Hisashi. Now that'd be AWSM EPIC!