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Final Symphony - Music from Final Fantasy VI, VII and X coming to the US in July

Z

Zhao_Yun

Member
Great news for American VGM fans!

Final Symphony, the award-winning, officially licensed concert tour featuring the music of Final Fantasy VI, VII and X, will make its North American debut this summer with a performance by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra on July 21, followed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on July 23 and the San Francisco Symphony on July 27.

Following sell-out concerts and rave reviews across Europe and Japan, production company Merregnon Studios is delighted to bring the definitive Final Fantasy music event across the Atlantic. Final Symphony takes the celebrated music of composers Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu and reimagines it as fully realized, orchestral suites, including a heart-stirring piano concerto based on Final Fantasy X, arranged by composer Hamauzu himself, and a full, 45-minute symphony based on the music of Final Fantasy VII.

“We’ve been working hard to bring Final Symphony to the US and I’m absolutely delighted that fans there will now be able to see fantastic orchestras perform truly symphonic arrangements of some of Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu’s most beloved themes,” said producer Thomas Böcker. “I’m very excited to see how fans here react to these unique and breathtaking performances. This is the music of Final Fantasy as you’ve never heard it before.”

Also joining will be regular Final Symphony conductor Eckehard Stier and talented pianist Katharina Treutler, who previously stunned listeners with her virtuoso performance on the Final Symphony album, recorded by the world famous London Symphony Orchestra at London’s Abbey Road Studios, and released to huge critical acclaim in February 2015. Described as “one of the best video game music albums ever made,” by leading website VGMOnline.net, it went straight to the top of the iTunes Classical chart in more than ten countries at launch, including the USA, where it was also a top five Classical Album on the Billboard Charts.
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http://www.spielemusikkonzerte.de/e.../final-symphony-mit-langersehntem-usa-debuet/
Website: http://finalsymphonyus.com/

Tickets:
San Diego: http://purchasing.sandiegosymphony.org/single/EventDetail.aspx?p=5570
Baltimore: http://www.bsomusic.org/calendar/ev...ny-music-from-final-fantasy-vi-vii-and-x.aspx
San Francisco: https://www.sfsymphony.org/Buy-Tickets/2015-2016/Final-Symphony.aspx


I think this is the first time that any of the Böcker-produced concerts will be performed in the US and I can't recommend Final Symphony enough to anyone who is interested in classical music and/or Final Fantasy music. I had the pleasure to attend the world premiere of this concert and the second FSII and was blown away by the quality of these new arrangements. While some may prefer arrangements closer to the original as with the Distant Worlds concerts, one cannot deny the artistic quality of Final Symphony. You can listen to the complete recording on Spotify or take a look at this performance of the FFVI Symphonic Poem if you aren't convinced yet.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
Fucking bought. Man, living in the Bay Area is fucking expensive, but it's awesome that I actually get to attend these kinds of things with little hassle. I've never been to the symphony, but have always wanted to go, this is perfect.
 
S

Shadow_FFVI

Member
How is this compared to Distant Worlds? I've been to Distant Worlds twice and I loved it. Considering this includes music from two of my favorite 3 soundtracks (I would prefer exchanging Ff X with IX) this sounds really tempting.
 
Z

Zhao_Yun

Member
Shadow_FFVI said:
How is this compared to Distant Worlds? I've been to Distant Worlds twice and I loved it. Considering this includes music from two of my favorite 3 soundtracks (I would prefer exchanging Ff X with IX) this sounds really tempting.
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While Distant Worlds is great since the arrangements try to stick as close to the original as possible, I personally prefer the more liberal arrangements of the Böcker concerts. Instead of playing particular tracks they have attempted to rearrange and combine several pieces into one larger classical piece of music such as a piano concerto or in the case of FFVII a whole symphony. If you played the games and know the music you'll realize that they aren't just sticking different themes together though. Instead they are trying to retell parts of the story with music and pieces which are interwoven with each other are chosen very deliberately. Just listen to the FFVI piece that I've also linked in the OP and you'll notice how it's basically a musical retelling of Terras story in FFVI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOJi5QSxJbw

In the end, it's a matter of personal preference and I can see why some people might not like this approach, but I personally really love what they've accomplished with it over the years :)
 
P

Prelude

Member
Shadow_FFVI said:
How is this compared to Distant Worlds? I've been to Distant Worlds twice and I loved it. Considering this includes music from two of my favorite 3 soundtracks (I would prefer exchanging Ff X with IX) this sounds really tempting.
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They perform different arrangements of the pieces with a better instrumentalization in my opinion. In particular they tend to structure them as cohesive as a concerto or a symphony
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I'm already super tempted to purchase some of those box seats. $75 a seat is actually pretty good and I've been wanting to do a FF symphony orchestra concert for some time and Baltimore is only a 3 hour drive from my house. I'm already texting some of my friends and big FF fans if they want to come with and make a bit of a party out of it.
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Lionheart1827 said:
Damn no NY :( First it was the Zelda concerts not being in NY, now this one.
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Baltimore is only like 4 hours from NYC. Its not close but if you made a long weekend of this, it could be totally doable. Then you can walk around B'more asking where Wallace at.
 
S

Shadow2222

Member
Wow. This would be an amazing experience. I hope they can eventually bring it to Ohio (Columbus and Cincinnati both have great symphony halls).
 
Pegasus Actual

Pegasus Actual

Member
I mean, I know it makes sense that these things are always during Comic-Con... but I want to *avoid* Comic Con and also see this. *shrug*
 
Q

qualitydisc

Member
Oh my god, I want to go to the Baltimore performance, but I've already got so much to spend money on this summer.

The videos from the European concerts are breathtaking. I appreciate that it's a different style from Distant Worlds -- Distant Worlds being a more straight-up orchestral conversion while Final Symphony is different pieces reinterpreted as a suite.
 
Z

Zhao_Yun

Member
qualitydisc said:
Oh my god, I want to go to the Baltimore performance, but I've already got so much to spend money on this summer.

The videos from the European concerts are breathtaking. I appreciate that it's a different style from Distant Worlds -- Distant Worlds being a more straight-up orchestral conversion while Final Symphony is different pieces reinterpreted as a suite.
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It's really an amazing experience live, so I am sure you won't be disappointed if you can somehow manage to go there! Don't get into financial troubles though :p

jb1234 said:
IX was covered in Final Symphony 2. We're still waiting for a CD release.
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I hope they announce something soon. The only recording that exists in the wild has really low quality unfortunately and it would be a waste if we never got a HQ recording for these arrangements.

Lunareste said:
Why would they not play the best Final Fantasy OST, VIII?
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Because they kept that for Final Symphony 2 as well.
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
I'm really excited about this. Got a little ahead of myself and thought the SF date was tomorrow, but it's next Weds.

Any gaffers headed to the SF one?
 
B

bounchfx

Member
Fuck I want to go see this in San Diego but I don't get a car until thurs/fri potentially, and it's thursday night. Shiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttt
 
Z

Zhao_Yun

Member
Any impressions from those who attended? Would be really interesting to hear how the concerts were received over there :)
 
Pejo

Pejo

Member
So I just wanted to post some impressions from this last night in SF.

+ The musicianship and sound quality was through the roof. This was my first time at an actual symphony and it was really memorable.
+ The arrangements were diverse and well done. Each one told a bit of a story in itself instead of just playing through the same themes that everyone knew
+ The final Fantasy 6 medley that kept alternating from Kefka's and Terra's themes was the best piece of the night. Just really really good and great range in tempo and timbre.
+ One Winged Angel arrangement was well done, and pretty powerful.

- The song selection for pretty much the rest of the show was rather disappointing. Please note that this is coming from a Final Fantasy fan, so I was mainly disappointed that they didn't hit on all of the great and memorable tracks from arguably 3 of the strongest OSTs in the series. The FFVII selections particularly. I'm sure the songs chosen for the arrangements made more sense from a symphony viewpoint though, so I get it.

Overall it was a really positive experience, and there were moments where I was grinning like a little kid. If I had one suggestion moving forward it would be to break up the slower songs with some of the more famous up-tempo pieces.
 
M

mochuuu

PSN Community Mgr.
Attended the SF show last night and it was everything I was hoping for and more. To be fair, I had already listened to this exact set before (you can too on Spotify etc spotify:album:4Cjk7WTdpJjVqEOrkGS1JW) but I had stopped listening to it for the past 3 months as soon as I knew this show was coming.

The pre talk by Sakaguchi was illuminating, the orchestra sounded amazing, and no doubt about it, these classical interpretations of the stories from these games really does take you through an emotional journey. It's almost like reliving the entire game's core story beats. Just to hear FFVI's World of Espers performed and then get mashed in to Atma Weapon's theme, then weaved in to additional battle music from 6, agh, just amazing.

FFX's piano concerto's in 3 movements was fantastic to watch as well as they had a world class pianist perform these pieces alongside the orhcestra.

And FFVII's suite was fantastic as well which after the 3rd and final movement, resulted in standing ovations with massive cheers from the audience. They all knew they had seen / heard something really special. They did two encores, both resulting multiple standing ovations and the conductor and pianist were available for autographs and photo ops after the show.

Can't wait to hear Final Symphony 2, and if you're a fan of this music and they come to your town, don't hesitate, buy the tickets.

(Also sorry, I'm not really a PSN community manager, but just haven't been able to find an admin that can get rid of that tag for me)
 
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