For those whom are in the dark, Distant Worlds is an orchestra concert series conducted by Arnie Roth, based on arrangements of music from Square-Enix's Final Fantasy series (mostly composed by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu). The concerts' music arrangement mostly follow the 20020220 concert held in Japan (that was conducted by Taizou Takemoto, performed by Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra).
In a nutshell, the current concert is a mix of arrangements from Distant Worlds I, II and Returning Home, performed by Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Az Samad as guitar solo, Dithyrambic Singers for the choir, Stephanie van Driesen for the solo vocals (soprano), Ho Chi Mei, James Long and Mak Chi Hoe as the soprano, tenor, bass opera solos respectively.
The musical journey kicks of with the all-important Prelude (a variation of "The Final Fantasy Song") you usually hear in most of the title background music in the FF series. Listening to the brief harp solo entrance really gives me the goosebumps - the experience is nowhere comparable to listening to FLAC recordings (or maybe just my DAC sucks).
This is immediately followed by FF8's overture - Liberi Fatali, accompanied by a variation of the FF8 overture FMV, with the choir performing remarkably, though voice texture a bit thinner than recording. The arrangement is exactly the same as the previous Distant Worlds concerts, except with a very slight variation in tempo and attack (performed by humans after all).
After a brief introduction by the composer, "the most important song" must be played - the classic Victory Theme 9 seconds short (not in any particular FF variation).
After that came the Final Fantasy 2010 Medley, a collection of music from the classic series (FF1, 2 and 3). This is very similar to the Final Fantasy 2002 Medley, with a few song replacements, notably the removal of Chocobo tune and introduction of more music from FF3, and the others which I couldn't recall with just a single pass of listening in the live concert.
To Zanarkand from FF10 was very beautifully performed. You could witness how well it was performed by the wet eyes of my friend sitting beside me. =w=d
Epic Memoro de la Stono - Distant Worlds from FF11 was epic, the entrance by the choir was superb, though I have no idea what Latin gibberish they were singing. The first movement of this piece is one of my favourites of the entire concert. Stephanie's voice is slightly different from the recording (of course, they're different people; recording is sung by Susan Calloway, silly me)
No Distant Worlds concert is complete without Mr Desperado - Laguna Loir's battle theme - Man with the Machine Gun. No surprises here - it sounds very similar to the recording I listened N-times, except a bit of variation in placement of instruments and difference of timbre in the jazz drums (first music with jazz drums in this concert by the way).
Another classic from FF5, used in the NDS remake as the introduction music - Theme of Love, slowing the excitement down with a bit of romance, with FMVs from the NDS remake as the final icing on the cake, portraying Cecil's path as a Dark Knight towards Warrior of Light.
An unusual appearance of You're not Alone, a piece never before performed on previously, in place of the usual A Place Called Home (which I prefer more), both from FF9, caught me completely off guard.
Roth said we seemed to have missed something before the interval - Chocobos (!) and gave us Chocobo Medley 2010 (a mix of Chocobo theme from FF14 and Swing de Chocobo, said to be both Roth and Uematsu's favorite), with a cute and amusing animation of chocobos across the entire FF series.
After the 20 minute interval, the original opening of FF7, along with live performance of Opening: Bombing Mission is performed. To be honest, the percussions and brass did slack a little bit in this one. If you like this piece, I recommend listening to the recordings.
Dear Friends from FF5 came right after a brief introduction to the solo guitarist, letting the audience catch some breaths. Unfortunately the usual guitar timbre you get from recordings goes unnoticed with the hall's set-up (naturally). Az Samad played it safe by following the recording's style of playing faithfully.
The real deal is finally here - Vamo alla Flamenco from FF9, whereby Zidane played a mock sword fight on stage in attempt to please the queen. There was a bit of confusion between the solo and the rest of the orchestra, leading to a bit of dissonance due to going out of synchronization. Az Samad yet again, played it safe by following faithfully to the previous Distant World's recording, too faithfully, which in my opinion, was an inferior one compared to 20020220 concert - a few technical bars of the piece was mysteriously slowed down for no apparent reason, which in my opinion, sticks out like a sore thumb.
The only non-Uematsu piece in this concert, Lightning's battle theme - Blinded by Light from FF13, composed by Masashi Hamauzu was greeted by a roar of applause. To a usually infinite-loop battle theme, he orchestra arrangement gave it a twist in the ending,
I'm surprised by the sudden silence, with Roth staring at the screen and sudden audio output from the usually-mute video. An excerpt from FF8 in Deling, during the evacuation, followed by a battle sequence... and the orchestra came into life with the de-facto battle theme - Don't be Afraid took the audience into a high trance. I would've yelled "YEAAAHHHH" if I was allowed to do so. There was one thing missing in the orchestra though... A bag of rice or something that was in the recording.
We were greeted by another battle theme - Clash on the Big Bridge of FF6. Personally I don't quite like this piece, maybe it's just me.
Things then slowed down with Aerith's Theme from FF7, with summary of how Cloud met Aerith, up to her final moments in the shrine praying for the ultimate white magic. Don't worry, the "bad" scene was somehow censored. The piano was a bit too bright for this piece though.
Initially I thought Opera: Maria and Darco from FF6 was boring. The vocalists trio exceed my expectations - they were many times better than the dull and old sounding voices in the recordings. Kudos! Now I feel like playing FF6 (using an SNES emulator of course) =P
El-classico credits (similar to the original FF6 introduction credits) rolled as Terra's Theme (Tina's Theme in Japanese version) played in the background - a very nice touch to the usually boring credits indeed. This final piece marked the end of the concert... or not.
Roth hinted us with an encore piece of Sephiroth, but he played us (one of my favourites in Distant Worlds) Suteki Da Ne from FF10 instead. If you've listened to the vocal entrance sung by Susan in the recordings before, you wouldn't settle for anything less. Though Stephanie's rendition was very good, Susan still has my vote for this one.
What could be a more epic finale than One Winged Angel from FF7? Roth even invited the audience to sing (more like yell) "Sephiroth"! HELLL YEAHHHHHHH! It was so epic some girl sitting behind me start chanting the entire lyrics of this piece loud enough for me to experience surround sound. =w=d
So that pretty much wraps up Distant Worlds 2012 Malaysia folks! RM122 well spent, but I'll get a seat 5 rows or so behind next time (next year maybe?).
Final note:
Don't trust public transportation in Malaysia - they close earlier than what they've published. If it weren't for munchkin, I'll be camping in KLCC for the night =w=d
