On September 12, 2009, the concert Symphonic Fantasies will occur at the Philharmonic Hall in Cologne, Germany. In an exclusive interview, producer Thomas Boecker has confirmed that the concert will be dedicated to various popular series designed by Square Enix. He also gives other new information about the concert, such as details of the arrangements, performances, and guests. Read more here. There's lots more to be announced about the concert so keep checking the site for more updates.

I'm really excited about this concert. Symphonic Shades was a fantastic production in all respects -- arrangements, performances, and more -- but Symphonic Fantasies sounds like it'll be even better. I'm a big fan of Jonne Valtonen's work and will be really looking forward to hearing his new arrangements of Final Fantasy, Mana, etc. classics. I'm looking forward to attending in September!

What does everyone else think? Are you planning to attend?

Wow I think my heartbeat actually quickened reading that interview!  If I was anywhere remotely near Germany I would be there and in any case I certainly hope we see a CD release.  I'm looking forward to hearing the Symphonic Shades album (soon) and getting an idea of what's in store (and will personally just disregard the Drammatica connection).

By far the most exciting thing is that all signs indicate we will see original arrangements and not just more rehashes of previous ones.

Am I missing something obvious on my own forums or has there been no discussion of the PROMS concert here?

Well, not everyone liked the Drammatica album, but I don't think it was really the WDR's fault. The flaws you and Resk of SEMO noted were more to do with Kameoka's arrangements and Shimomura's direction than the orchestra itself. They're fantastic with Valtonen's arrangements and Roth's baton! I'm amazed how flawless their performance was even live. I hope you like the Symphonic Shades CD too!

As for PROMS, it was mentioned a few times on SEMO, mostly in interviews and event reports. However, I've never seen it mentioned in any forums. It was innovative because it blended classical and game performances for the first time in a major radio-broadcasted concert. I'm personally not too sure what was played although the Grand Monster Slam fanfare debuted there.

I think they're passing up some excellent source material by only arranging music from the "Square" half of Square Enix. I was almost interested at first, when I considered that there could be some Star Ocean or Valkyrie Profile tunes

Also, Kingdom Hearts = boo :-p That's more time they could be playing Mana or Chrono music, or heck even Xenogears.

this could be my first videogame concert

Even though I'm relatively close I wonder if I should go at all due the reasons Smeg mentioned. I guess I'll grab a few tickets (the prices certainly don't hurt) and decide whether to go personally depending on if any Mystic Quest (aka FF Adventure aka Seiken Densetsu) or Secret of Mana music is played (the only Square games which have any nostalgic value to me).

According to the WDR website, Secret of Mana will be among the items performed. So see you there Datschge?

I'm personally very pleased that the concert will be celebrating music outside of the Final Fantasy series at all. In fact, I'm really delighted by what will be offered titles-wise and don't really see any point in complaining about my cult likings that are missing. That said, I would have attended whatever the focus -- because I know the music would be fantastic.

Star Ocean and Dragon Quest are nice and all, but I think by packing those in the concert might lose that unique fantasy spirit of Square under Uematsu and co. Plus I'm pretty sure they and Mystic Quest are not what the majority of mainstream Square Enix fans in Germany would want. It might also risk turning the concert from a coherent concert into a hotchpotch.

If only I could this should be right up there with some of the great concerts they have made b4. I still watch Voices on dvd when I want some good music.

I just ordered 15 tickets. Watch out for us Finns.

Here's a video of the official opening fanfare, recorded live in Cologne.  Any thoughts?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akq7e7SkNnk

For those interested, Chris Huelsbeck has done an interview too that is translated into English here. Very good to see he has formed a new studio after the Factor 5 fallout and has apparently worked on two new game projects. Also delighted to hear he recently got married; he deserves some happiness after several tragedies in his life.

Yoko Shimomura will attend the Symphonic Fantasies concerts:

http://www.symphonicfantasies.com/post/ … rformed-in

Yay! If I die when I am in Germany, you will know why:

http://squareenixmusic.com/musicnews2.p … m=&ucat=2&

This is quite a surprise. Guess who ISN'T the third and final guest!

http://www.squareenixmusic.com/musicnew … m=&ucat=2&

I'm surprised, but really excited to meet this guest!

Would it hurt to actually put the information in your post instead of requiring a link jump?

As SEMO reports, Hiroki Kikuta will attend the concert and be available for a "meet and greet" session (in addition to Yoko Shimomura and Yasunori Mitsuda).

There, that wasn't so hard.

My apologies Adam. It won't happen again!

So, Uematsu couldn't resist traveling to Germany, after all. Well, pretty nice lineup we got then.

Impossible - they'd never get Square Enix' permission to make money with it. Unfortunately, I'll miss this concert as well, even though Cologne is 90-minute-trainride away from my present location.

It's been a while, and I won't include any links, but there will be four suites. One for Kingdom Hearts, one for Secret of Mana, one for Chrono, and one for Final Fantasy. Each week, for the past four weeks, Arnie Roth has revealed 3 of the pieces for each suite. More will be announced September 1st, but the full list of themes included in each suite will be revealed at the concert itself.

So, in order of suite performance,

Kingdom Hearts

Dearly Beloved
The Other Promise
Fight to the Death

There will be a strong focus on piano by Benyamin Nuss, the soloist, during this suite.

Secret of Mana

Fear of the Heavens
Into the Thick of It
The Oracle

There will be a focus on choir in this suite, with lyrics in latin.

Chrono Trigger/Cross

Chrono Trigger Main Theme
Battle with Magus
Time's Scar

There will be a focus on percussion in this suite by soloist Rony Barrak.

Final Fantasy

Prelude
Battle with Gilgamesh
Bombing Mission

This suite will utilize choir as well.

Well there's nothing wrong with linking, I just want to see some information in the post as well.   (As SEMO seems to be the official news outlet for the concert it's a safe bet that's where the info comes from.)

You can't go wrong with "Fear of the Heavens", and none of the Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy selections are surprising either.  Here's hoping we finally get a decent arrangement of "Bombing Mission" (with the "Opening" part intact).

And I really hope "Frog's Theme" made it into the program!

I've posted a news update on SEMO since Chris is on vacation.

http://www.squareenixmusic.com/musicnew … m=&ucat=2&

Additional titles were revealed today.

Kingdom Hearts - Hand in Hand
Secret of Mana - Prophecy
Chrono Cross - Prisoners of Fate
Final Fantasy VI - Phantom Forest

There will be another announcement on September 3rd. From what the producers tell me, it's going to be a huge one!

Here's another update!

http://www.squareenixmusic.com/musicnew … m=&ucat=2&

For those of you who can't make it to the concert, there will be a live streaming video broadcast of the concert. I think this is a fantastic idea personally! Information can be found in the link above.

don't forget to catch the livestream today if you can't attend:

http://www.symphonicfantasies.com/

The audio stream is working fine but I'm having zero luck with the video.   Anybody else faring any better?

I'm using VLC Player with this stream: http://www.wdr.de/wdrlive/media/wdr-tv-event_web-m.asx

works perfectly!

Sounds like you have a codec problem. I highly recommend you use CCCP and remove any other codec packs (K-Lite, etc) you might have.

well it just ended, lol.

What was the first encore? before One Winged Angel... >_>

Damn, I completely forgot about this... anyone know if they recorded the stream for people to watch later?

Ah well, too late now.  Thanks for the info though.

So, impressions from the broadcast?  I quite liked the intro to the Chrono arrangement and was stoked to hear Frog's theme make it for the finale.  As for Final Fantasy, I'm just relieved to finally hear a respectable arrangement of "Bombing Mission".  They certainly managed to make some changes to distinguish their FF arrangements from the many already out there (not the least of which was using the choir so extensively for the main theme).  And an excellent call it was merging choral arrangements from the various series (particularly "Lavos" from CT) for the encore!  There were some alterations I wasn't so convinced by but will save judgment for a hopeful additional listen.

Looking forward to hearing from some of you who made it to the show!

My apologies if this isn't permitted.

Here's my recording, which includes both video and audio. I'm not sure if there was a feed that was a larger size than this one. It's quite small, but still watchable (and listenable.)

megaupload.com/?d=H5MB4OL7

I'm regretting my decision not to go; it was a great concert.

Thank you!  I was out on the field at work today, so I couldn't be anywhere near a computer to view this.  Will be sure to give it a watch soon!

You can also find it on Youtube in better picture and sound quality (no offense to SecretSquirrel's appreciated efforts). It's pretty fun stuff. Generally good performances, some interesting arrangements. Maybe a little bit overkill on the chorus but the passion definitely comes through. The Secret of Mana material is my favorite (and I skipped Kingdom Hearts altogether as I don't care for the music).

HQ version (1.19 GB) can be gotten via torrent from here

yes!  thanks to seanne for pointing to the hq torrent.. dloading now...

Thanks for the links, I wasn't around to enjoy it in real-time either.