So. Saw the "Distant Worlds" Final Fantasy music concert on both Friday night and Saturday night. Yes I am a huge geek. They had a somewhat different repertoire between the nights, so it wasn't total craziness - they had the choir on Friday, and the solo guitarist / soloists for the FF6 Maria & Draco opera. Who amusingly enough were actual Met Opera people currently playing in Tosca.
My only complaint- and I should preface this with having been a trumpet player in high school - was that the high brass was just plain off their game on Friday night. I dunno what it was but they just weren't driving the pieces when they were the melody as much as they should have been. Low brass was better but still didn't quite pull their weight. At least the piano / strings / woodwinds / choir were all solid. Saturday, I guess the trumpeter was feeling better or something? Maybe somebody had to call out on Friday? Who knows.
Friday's music, with some comments:
FFVII: Prelude
I missed it. Stupid Google Transit saying Lafayette Avenue was an A stop... sure it is... late at night... followed by me misisng my stop after already having sailed right past the station on the A twice.
FFVIII: Liberi Fatali
And I missed the first part of this too. Damn it, because Liberi Fatali is probably in my top 3 of video game music ever. Still, pretty solid. Well done, except for the brass, which is a big problem. I listened to the Indianapolis orchestra try and do this piece at Video Games Live 2010 at GenCon, and while they clearly needed more practice (it's a hard piece! Don't play it once then try it in front of an audience!) their brass at least had the chutzpah to give their parts energy. The Brooklyn Academy of Music people they had felt more technically on the ball but also wimping out a bit. The brass, anyway. I'm picky.
FFVIII: Don’t Be Afraid
This still translates great to orchestra. Hurray.
FFXI: Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds
Susan Calloway is a great singer. Very well done.
FFVIII:The Man with the Machine Gun
Not quite as good a fit as Don't Be Afraid, but it still works. They're both orchestrations straight from the original FF8 Fithos Lusec orchestrated disc, but hey, they're good, so.
FFX: Suteki da Ne
I recalled not liking the English version of this before, but Calloway *nailed* this. One of my favorites of the night.
FF VIII: Fisherman's Horizon
Surprisingly great. Very nice for a town theme with the whole orchestra there, who did a good job. Again, it's off the orchestrated FF8 CD, but it's really good, so not complaining.
Chocobo Theme
They used an FF14 Chocobo theme for the opening, which actually was pretty sweet orchestrated. Switched into Swing de Chocobo after
FFVII: Opening - Bombing Mission
Good pick from FF7. Visuals got a little lost toward the end when it became random cool stuff from FF7 rather than fitting the Bombing Mission. Are we going to blow up the Gold Saucer?!
FFIV: Navigator’s Glory ~The Theme of Limsa Lominsa~
Okay for the first 3 minutes, didn't really go very after that. Also why does FF14 have an exquisitely animated video of adventurers hacking up a Malboro. That money could have been used to make something actually plotty in a real FF. Sigh. (Amusing endpoint, though, they stop with Our Hero being strangled by a Malboro with a log falling on him. Game Over?)
FFXIV: Answers
Yeah, Susan Calloway is still awesome. The conductor proved himself something of a flake here in hyping the lyrics as philosophical, when they're nonsense, but whatever.
http://www.ffxivorigin.com/videos/final-fantasy-xiv-ost-answers-22.htmlIf you're not familiar with it. It worked quite well with the challenge / response deal between the choir and the soloist. I also still don't know how this could possibly tie into FF14, but whatever.
FFXIII: Fabula Nova Crystalli (= The Promise)
FFXIII: Blinded by Light
These were the two disappointments of Friday, though they got much much better on Saturday for some reason. They just plain looped both pieces rather than do anything neat, first off. Secondly, the tempo dragged for Blinded by Light, and the brass just plain failed to show up. Volume problems too when the piece was supposed to really get going and release tension (1 minute in on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7lD184dV8U ), they couldn't really mike the strings or increase volume, so it actually went DOWN in energy. Not that it could ever keep any. Bah. At least Saturday was better as noted.
FFX: To Zanarkand
FF VII: J-E-N-O-V-A
Whose idea was it to put these two of all pieces back to back? Whatever. To Zanarkand was solid but it's, if anything, better with a solo piano, so the orchestra only helps so much here given a good pianist. JENOVA had a good first 2 and a half minutes, but what they came up with for after the loop had finished didn't really work for me.
FFXII: Kiss Me Goodbye
Calloway is still a good singer, shock. This still isn't THAT special a piece, I'd have picked other stuff from FF12 to use if at all possible.
FFV: Clash on the Big Bridge
Solid. Didn't try and play it too long either, which I respect. Should have brought in more FF12 version hype, though.
FFVI: Terra's Theme
Doubled as the credits, so the looping was less noticeable with all the applause after the first time through. Still a nice piece for closing with.
FFVII: One Winged Angel
Though of course they had to play this one with a choir there. Needed less random Advent Children loser extra villains in the visuals but I don't care because the choir nailed this.
Saturday, no choir as noted, and mixed up the order some (They opened with Opening-Bombing Mission for example, rather than holding that for after the intermission). "Blinded by Light" was done much better, as noted. They also did To Zanarkand -> Don't Be Afraid, which was less jarring. New stuff:
FF V: Dear Friends
FF IX: Vamo' alla Flamenco
These were the pieces for the guitar soloist. They were well done, but I'm not really a fan of either piece. They're okay.
FF IX: Melodies of Life
Not really a fan of Melodies of Life either, but Susan Calloway nailed it, so sure. Incidentally, I suspect that Eyes on Me will never make these concerts, because there's already so much FF8 music that works great for an orchestra, but you'd want a poppier singer / accompaniment to do it right.
FFVII: Aeris's Theme
Yeah, with an S, that's right. Not much to say, it's a string heavy piece which means it translates great to an orchestra.
FF1-3 Medley
They did the Prelude, Matoya's Cave, Bridge Crossing theme, Aria, Maiden of Water, and the theme of the Rebel Army. Meh to Aria, though, it required Meeple in chat for me to identify it. Worked, I guess, though I'd totally have canned Aria for The Boundless Ocean as far as the FF3 pick. Alternatively, the Dark Crystals or the final battle.
FF11: Ronfaure
Seemed like the instrumental version of Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds, but I'll grant this is a piece that translates well to orchestra and feels like it was written for a lot of strings. Solid.
FF14: Navigator's Glory, Twilight Over Thanalan
Navigator's Glory was the same. Twilight was... dunno. Didn't make a huge impression. I liked the FF11 pieces so I'm going to blame FF14 here.
FF VI: Opera "Maria and Draco"
The male singers were excellent - very clear, good bassist, all that. The female singer was also good, I guess, but I couldn't make out the lyrics at all from that opera "style" of singing. Oh well. Also they decided to close out as the actual opera probably would have sans octopus interruption. This was also the only visual section they bothered to re-record from the English version of FF3/6 rather than using the Japanese versions prepared for Distant Worlds concerts in Japan. (Okay, Terra's Theme / credits had English too). But yeah, pretty cool, I liked it.
They "closed" with Terra's Theme again, which fit better when coming right after Maria & Draco I thought, but wasn't sure what they'd do for an encore with no choir. Turned out it was One Winged Angel again.... the sing-along version. Okay! I feared it'd be terrible but the prompts were pretty good and I could hear some actual singer who could keep pitch singing loudly, so was pleasantly surprised.
All in all, pretty cool. Recommended if it stops by your area.
EDIT: And oh yes. Nobuo Uematsu was there himself, and wearing a silly bandanna / head scarf thingy on Friday. He joined the choir for OWA, which was pretty amusing. Technically irrelevant but hey. Picked up both the Distant Worlds CDs and a separate CD by Susan Calloway (her own music I guess), though not the DVD that theoretically has the newest Distant Worlds music because screw the DVD format for music. I've pirated enough music that I'll do my bit for supporting game music with actual purchases.
