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Symphonic Legends London: Music of Zelda (London Symphony Orchestra, July 13th 2014)

V

Volotaire

Member
That was quite brilliant :) Unusual percussion uses as well. I was surprised they didn't cover as many games, and instead focused on movements and retelling elements of the series, although there were clear Twilight Princess influences in there. I'm quite sad MM was not included, I thought that could have made it's own movement. The Skyward Sword movement was incredible.
 
V

Volotaire

Member
Heroman said:
Will there be a cd?
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I'm not sure, there should be some cam recordings uploaded later by people as usual. Also, I forgot to add, after watching a few recordings of the Nintendo symphony on YouTube, I was afraid the crowd would be rowdy, but they were absolutely perfect.
 
F

Famassu

Member
Well, that was simply incredible. It was so great to hear some melodies I first heard when I was five or six years old played by a full orchestra, the LSO at that. Worth it to come all the way from Finland.
 
T

Throwaway123456789

Member
Completely disagree. I thought it was meh. The Skyward Sword part was okay, the Wind Waker part with the five extras poor and the last (main) suite was the same as last time, which was incredibly disapointing.
 
W

wmlk

Member
Volotaire said:
I'm not sure, there should be some cam recordings uploaded later by people as usual. Also, I forgot to add, after watching a few recordings of the Nintendo symphony on YouTube, I was afraid the crowd would be rowdy, but they were absolutely perfect.
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I'd assume that the British would have better etiquette for these kind of events.
 
F

Famassu

Member
FoxHimself said:
Completely disagree. I thought it was meh. The Skyward Sword part was okay, the Wind Waker part with the five extras poor and the last (main) suite was the same as last time, which was incredibly disapointing.
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I haven't been to one before, so I couldn't really give a fuck if they had done something before, kind of silly to expect them to do something completely new. The Skyward part was great, as was most of Wind Waker's. The only problem with it was that you couldn't really hear the recorders all that well when the whole orchestra was playing, but otherwise the arrangements were excellent, nothing poor about it.
 
Cygnus X-1

Cygnus X-1

Member
I was there. I was impressed by Gerudo's valley- and Dark World's interpretations. Fantastic. Kokiri's forest also was very good.
 
E

EmiPrime

Member
I think there was too much of the dark foreboding music and not enough melodies at times but Symphonic Poem (the final set, after the intermission) struck the right balance and was definitely the highlight.
 
T

Throwaway123456789

Member
Famassu said:
I haven't been to one before, so I couldn't really give a fuck if they had done something before, kind of silly to expect them to do something completely new. The Skyward part was great, as was most of Wind Waker's. The only problem with it was that you couldn't really hear the recorders all that well when the whole orchestra was playing, but otherwise the arrangements were excellent, nothing poor about it.
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Is it really silly to expect something that's not four years old?
 
K

Koozek

Member
I've been to both Symphonic Fantasies and Symphonic Odysseys (Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu) in Germany and they were both absolutly stunning.
The guys organizing and composing/arranging for the Symphonic series, like Thomas Böcker, Jonne Valtonen and Roger Wanamo are extremely passionate about these projects.
If you have the chance go check it out, especially if you've never heard a symphonic orchestra live before! :)
 
V

Volotaire

Member
FoxHimself said:
Completely disagree. I thought it was meh. The Skyward Sword part was okay, the Wind Waker part with the five extras poor and the last (main) suite was the same as last time, which was incredibly disapointing.
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There were definitely parts in transition to other songs or odd use of percussion/instruments that didn't jive with me, that's for sure. Just a question, would you have preferred if they went through the Nintendo symphony route, and play more defined songs through each game instead of this one?
 
T

The Red Wizard

Member
T

Throwaway123456789

Member
Volotaire said:
There were definitely parts in transition to other songs or odd use of percussion/instruments that didn't jive with me, that's for sure. Just a question, would you have preferred if they went through the Nintendo symphony route, and play more defined songs through each game instead of this one?
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Yes, I think so, but I also enjoy these kind of rearrangements, so it's not a problem for me.

The percussion part of the final piece is the reason I don't like it, so that sucked.. Though I love the Twilight Princess Zora part with the chorus.

I found the Wind Waker arrangement poor, and the guys at the front didn't add to it, I felt. I had trouble hearing them, and they made the pieces that should have an "oomph" to them kind of plain. The Volvagia battle was good and fitting to their instruments.
 
V

Volotaire

Member
FoxHimself said:
Yes, I think so, but I also enjoy these kind of rearrangements, so it's not a problem for me.

The percussion part of the final piece is the reason I don't like it, so that sucked.. Though I love the Twilight Princess Zora part with the chorus.

I found the Wind Waker arrangement poor, and the guys at the front didn't add to it, I felt. I had trouble hearing them, and they made the pieces that should have an "oomph" to them kind of plain. The Volvagia battle was good and fitting to their instruments.
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I think it helps that I haven't played Wind Waker and I only know the main tunes out of the game i.e. the Great Sea, DragoonRoost, the intro, etc. so I'm not so familiar with the arrangement of that movement. I do agree, the guys at the front were sometimes superfluous (perhaps more-so the (recorder?) players.
 
S

SunGod

Member
I spoke to Thomas Böcker about it and there won't be a CD, Nintendo won't let them record the concerts which is a shame because I really enjoyed it :(
 
J

jett

D-Member
SunGod said:
I spoke to Thomas Böcker about it and there won't be a CD, Nintendo won't let them record the concerts which is a shame because I really enjoyed it :(
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Nintendo is always, somewhere, making a really boneheaded decision.
 
T

Tookay

Member
SunGod said:
I spoke to Thomas Böcker about it and there won't be a CD, Nintendo won't let them record the concerts which is a shame because I really enjoyed it :(
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I don't get Nintendo's overprotectiveness of their brands sometimes.

Their fans are begging to throw money their way, and they don't care.

(I don't understand why Symphony of the Goddesses hasn't had a soundtrack release either.)
 
M

MrSaturn99

Member
Okay, I'm no fan of Skyward Sword, but this overture suite is incredible! Makes me really wish the orchestra was more prominent in that game.

Volotaire said:
Symphonic Legends did one last year? I thought it was Nintendo who did the symphony series. If you mean the latter, then yes they did Gerudo valley. But the two are not the same.
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I'm referring to last fall's encore for Symphonic Selections.
 
E

EmiPrime

Member
kuroneko0509 said:
Lemme check my recordings, but I doubt it will be better than what's been uploaded. Not to mention countless giggles from the couples who sit beside me :(
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I had some people near me take their seats during the first performance who then loudly cracked open and slurped cans of drink.

Nerds. :/
 
K

Katzenjammer

Member
FoxHimself said:
Completely disagree. I thought it was meh. The Skyward Sword part was okay, the Wind Waker part with the five extras poor and the last (main) suite was the same as last time, which was incredibly disapointing.
Click to expand...

Err... did we listen to the same concert? Because what I heard was a heavily rewritten piece where basically half of it was ripped out and replaced by something new, and the other half touched up in almost every way. It was more of a spiritual successor to the previous piece. Knowing the old version very well made it hard to listen to this one since I couldn't help but compare them, but that's a different issue.

wmlk said:
I'd assume that the British would have better etiquette for these kind of events.
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I was down at the stalls and the audience was frakkin awesome, don't think I've heard a video game concert crowd as silent as that anywhere in Europe. The only complaint I have is that I had David Wise sitting two rows behind me.. which was distracting... because it was David Wise...


I basically enjoyed the whole concert a lot. The orchestra was amazing, to begin with. I never played Skyward Sword (but had heard some of the themes), but that first piece was really, really good and probably my favorite of the whole concert as the execution felt flawless. And the double harps were given a lot of attention!

The Wind Waker suite was also very good, but I remember liking it more the first time I heard it in Cologne. I think the orchestra got a bit confused by Spark playing a bit loosely, because it didn't feel as tight as when they played Skyward Sword (I guess Spark had a more free flowing feel to them while the orchestra tried to be rigid and synchronized, which caused some discordance). The piece itself is still beautifully written though.

Then for the final part, it was very weird. It was both very familiar to me and different at the same time which was confusing. I generally liked the changes though. The intro was reworked from just presenting the Hero's theme with the orchestra to also incorporating Navi's flying at the beginning of OoT, and while it felt less majestic, it also made more sense. I also liked that the battle movement was rewritten and completely based on the Dark World theme instead of just quoting it, and I enjoyed that the last movement had such a gaudily drawn out finale which made it seem like the concert ended three times.

The movement with the spirit was one of the more significant changes for me, as the solo had been deemphasized a lot which changed the tone of the movement a lot despite it being otherwise very similar. Instead of putting a lot of focus on the solo, a girl just sort of sang it quickly and it was a bit lost in the midst of all the other sounds, though the choir did do some very cool "reverb effects" that gave it a neat post-processed feeling. The whistling at the end of the movement (which I believe was brought in when Valtonen first rewrote the movement for the East Meets West concert) made it feel more like a forest full of spirits that were speaking, instead of one great fairy. The choir in general felt a bit underused though, and were often hard to hear over the orchestra, though what I did manage to pick up sounded like some very challenging passages.

Ultimately it was a great concert, and I look forward to hearing more new music from these arrangers as they are currently unrivaled in their field and manage to make something very unique with video game music. Thanks for these threads Aku-Audi!
 
V

Volotaire

Member
Katzenjammer said:
Err... did we listen to the same concert? Because what I heard was a heavily rewritten piece where basically half of it was ripped out and replaced by something new, and the other half touched up in almost every way. It was more of a spiritual successor to the previous piece. Knowing the old version very well made it hard to listen to this one since I couldn't help but compare them, but that's a different issue.



I was down at the stalls and the audience was frakkin awesome, don't think I've heard a video game concert crowd as silent as that anywhere in Europe. The only complaint I have is that I had David Wise sitting two rows behind me.. which was distracting... because it was David Wise...
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Mother of God... You lucky person!
 
T

TitusGroan

Banned
Starwolf_UK said:
Nintendolife posted some impressions
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/07/feature_a_night_at_the_theatre_with_symphonic_legends
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Really unsure about these impressions, especially as what I did manage to listen to on Youtube sounded absolutely fantastic. It seems to me like they were all wanting and expected straight musical performances of the original music, but part of the joy of classical music is hearing how different orchestras and arrangers can produce different interpretations of the same musical ideas. I for one think it's great that they tried to arrange things differently for this concert, rather than doing the 25th Anniversary Pt 2, and what I heard sounded suitably different but still beautiful.

They pretty much end that article by saying they should have catered to what the audience wanted, but as someone with a ken interest in music, I absolutely loathe that argument. They should have done, and did, what the arrangers and orchestra wanted to do. Perhaps it was under-rehearsed, but there is nothing wrong with giving an eminent orchestra like the LSO an original arrangement of interpreted tunes to work with. It makes for a more unique and individual concert overall.
 
E

EmiPrime

Member
TitusGroan said:
Really unsure about these impressions, especially as what I did manage to listen to on Youtube sounded absolutely fantastic. It seems to me like they were all wanting and expected straight musical performances of the original music, but part of the joy of classical music is hearing how different orchestras and arrangers can produce different interpretations of the same musical ideas. I for one think it's great that they tried to arrange things differently for this concert, rather than doing the 25th Anniversary Pt 2, and what I heard sounded suitably different but still beautiful.

They pretty much end that article by saying they should have catered to what the audience wanted, but as someone with a ken interest in music, I absolutely loathe that argument. They should have done, and did, what the arrangers and orchestra wanted to do. Perhaps it was under-rehearsed, but there is nothing wrong with giving an eminent orchestra like the LSO an original arrangement of interpreted tunes to work with. It makes for a more unique and individual concert overall.
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I can see how you would feel that way but the audience was really very young, almost everyone late teens, twenties and early thirties most of whom probably aren't exposed much to classical music outside of games and film. People were expecting more recognisable melodies like the Kakariko Village and Outset Island pieces rather than completely original compositions or pieces that are so arranged that they are unrecognisable.
 
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