What You Missed This Weekend: Symphonic Fantasies – The Squaresoft Concert
Every so often, a gaming-related event gets lost in the chaos of the industry. This weekend’s Symphonic Fantasies concert in Cologne, Germany was just such an event. Featuring music from Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, and Kingdom Hearts, the concert, streamed online, was a Square fan’s dream.
Conducted by Arnie Roth, veteran of Play! A Videogame Symphony and orchestral amalgam Manheim Steamroller, Symphonic Fantasies featured a number of unique arrangements of songs stretching throughout the classic Squaresoft RPG library. Standout performances include “Prisoners of Fate” from Chrono Cross, “The Other Promise” from Kingdom Hearts II, and “Battle at the Big Bridge” from numerous Final Fantasy games. The concert also sported one of the most unique arrangements of Uematsu’s legendary “One Winged Angel” one might ever hear, though it should probably be heard rather than explained.
Also unique about this concert was the fact that the composers of the music featured (Nobuo Uematsu of Final Fantasy, Hiroki Kikuta of Secret of Mana, Yoko Shimomura of Kingdom Hearts and Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger) were all in attendance for the festivities.
However, the most intriguing part of the concert was the fact that the people behind it were kind enough to offer, for free, a very high-quality livestream of the entire concert online, for those unable to reach Germany in time for the show. The concert, and the stream with it, ended several hours ago, but streams of the performance have already made their way onto Youtube for intrigued fans to listen in.
No word has yet been given on a potential CD release of the show, but considering the extremely high quality of not only the audio in the show, but the arrangements themselves, which offer a very unique take on several timeless Squaresoft songs, it would be in the producers’ best interest to make the show available either as a DVD or a CD. I’d buy it.
Source: Symphonic Fantasies
How can one be warned of the happening of such an event ?
You can be sure that, living in France and at 2 hours in train from Köln, I would have attended.
I’m so pissed when I hear this kind of news. Not at you of course.
And it’s not he first time I realize I’ve just missed _the_ concert of the artist I would have loved to attend.
Especially this kind of concert, that happens once or twice in a decade in Europe.
Anyway, thanks for relaying and let’s watch for a potential release.
This was amazing concert and to see all the composers in the audience was just cream on top. Just to bad they did not tell a soul about it in the press.