Postby mechana2015 » Tue May 11, 2004 1:02 am
I saw it... oh... my... can't breathe...warning... hyperbolie ahead.
Needless to say the concert was INCREDIBLE.
First off the concert was performed by the LA Philharmonic and the LA Master Chorale. This alone Pushed the concert into high realms of perfomance, and the excellent Disney Concert hall made every note have a quality that had to be heard to be believed. I have seen many concerts of this type in my life, but never one so well responded to and so well produced.
The Disney Concert Hall was packed on our arrival. My friend Jocelyn, her brother, and her friend Morgan got in line for programs (These were also de-facto art books and histories of the whole Final Fantasy Series, as much as Nobou had worked on.)
While we were waiting we gained our first realization of how big this event truely was. Morgan Webb, one of the hosts of X-Play on tech TV was spotted. She also saw us (both girls were in corsets and solid black pants/dresses, I was in a solid black suit). Morgan (Webb) singled out Morgan and interviewed her.
We entered the concert hall 5 minutes before the show started, and were sucked into the show with FF VIII's Liberi Fatali. The MC, the voice of Tidus, from FFX, came out and introduced the next three songs, Zanarkand (FFX), Terra's Theme (FF VI) and the Theme of Love (FF IV), They then played the concerts title song, Dear Friends (FF V) featuring a guitar soloist, who stayed through the next Vamo' Alla Flamenco (FF IX) and played beautifully. The first half of the concert ended with Love Grows from FF VIII.
Intermission was taken up by conversation, and thoughts on the concert so far and speculation on the coming music.
We returned to the hall and were brought back into the concert with Aeris Theme from FF VII, stirring, especially considering that they played animations throughout the concert and brought the music, through the animations even more to life than it was through the music (and the music alone was so good it could nearly be felt in the air). The concert continued with Not Alone from IX, then Ronafure from XI. Next off was a medley from I through III. We were quite happy so far, but the crowd went wild MID-SONG at five notes, first laughing then cheering. The middle of the medly was none other than the famous chocabo song! (obvously a big favorite on my part V >.< V) Next up was quite a surprise...NEW music from Final Fantasy Advent Children. This quite made up, (we decided) for a lack of One Winged Angel, our most beloved song, which we found missing from the program.
The final song, Final Fantasy passed too quickly and the concert appeared to be over. The conductor said his thanks and left the stage.
The crowd continued applause, and the conductor returned.
We expected a encore.
But we got better.
The conductor called Nobou Uematsu, the composer of every song that we had heard that night, up onto the stage. The room was ecstatic. Nobou spoke through a translator for a while then made the second most electrifying announcment of the night. He was calling up to the stage two of his greatest friends, Yoshitaka Amano, the main visual designer of all things Final Fantasy, and Sakaguchi the father of the series and everything in it. The hall exploded. Both made speeches then left the stage to yet another standing ovation.
At that moment the most electrifying thing of night occurred.
The conductor lept to the stand swept his hands up and began ONE WINGED ANGEL as the finale encore...with video from VII following right along...unannounced and unnoted in the program.
Stunning.
This was the end of the concert... and an amazing concert it was.
Theres the review I promised!