Review – PLAY! A Videogame Symphony

August 4^th, 2006 – Imagine yourself in my place.  Sitting through your last of three semesters of music history, finally having come to the 20^th century.  You’ve covered the greats – Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms – composers who have inspired young minds to pursue music for centuries.  And yet you find yourself wondering – when will we cover the composer who first touched my heart? The composer who introduced me to opera? 

Of course, I knew that moment was not to come.  Yet, Friday night at Wolf Trap, I was able to experience the music of Nobuo Uematsu live, with probably the most enthusiastic audience the National Symphony Orchestra has ever seen.  PLAY! A Videogame Symphony comes to us from the minds that created the first game music concert to be performed in the states, Dear Friends – Music from FINAL FANTASY.  Though our friend from G4, Tommy Tallarico, has his own variation on this theme, PLAY! has the advantage of the full support of Uematsu, and started off with a fanfare composed specifically for this concert series.  One could sense the nervousness in the audience at this point – with no videogame images on the screen and no recognizable game franchise to latch on to, I am sure many people were afraid that they had somehow ended up in the wrong place!  However, the Fanfare was classic Uematsu (it can be heard at the official website). 

Next up was Liberi Fatali, from FFVIII.  I remember very well the first time I heard this, sitting about a half inch from the TV screen, drinking in the cutting edge CG and (for the first time) real orchestral scoring of game music.  I have heard this song probably a hundred times, and I was somewhat convinced that hearing the music live was not going to heighten the experience – I was wrong, thankfully!  The only thing sorely lacking, and this was to happen with all of the Final Fantasy music, were visuals – every other piece performed had some clips from the game played on the huge video screens above – heck, the promotional image for the concert is even Rinoa from this very piece!  Yet, there was blankness.  In any case, there is a certain appeal to the music existing for its own sake.

Now, you may be thinking that this whole concert was a Final Fantasy Fest, but no!  Next up on the program was a Super Mario Bros. suite.  This was fantastic – a great arrangement of the classic themes that was totally faithful to the intentions of the originals.  Taking an 8-bit game soundtrack and scoring it for full orchestra is not a task I would be envious of, but Koji Kondo did a fantastic job.  This piece was where the audience really started enjoying themselves – marveling at this new incarnation of the familiar, while laughing at the images projected onscreen. 

I had the advantage of not being familiar with all of the music being presented, and so I was able to come at a few of the pieces with no connection whatsoever.  I can say that I was able to enjoy the music I had never heard just as much as the ones I had heard many times.  Shenmue was a particular highlight, with a gorgeous string solo.  Though I’ve played a bit of Morrowind, I really had no idea what the soundtrack was, until I realized they used the same themes in Oblivion, just with a much less upbeat arrangement  – during the video clips I am sure I heard our friends at Bethesda letting up a rousing cheer.  Silent Hill was another surprise – here I was expecting to hear some gloomy, cheesy fright-fest, yet out comes the electric guitar!  (Nothing is more hilarious than watching a classically trained musician rock out, by the by.)  One of the more disappointing pieces was Sonic – I don’t know that anyone in the audience really recognized the music that was playing. 

No evening of game music would be complete without some WoW, and this one was no exception.  This was another very well arranged suite – it was really cool to hear all those clips from Stormwind City finally put together into one coherent piece.  I wanted to be the guy who got to beat out the ONE-two ONE-two ONE-two-three of the log-in-screen theme on the drums! 

The last piece (besides the encore, which was music from the upcoming game “Blue Dragon” – why do an encore of music that no one knows yet?) was what conductor Arnie Roth called “Uematsu’s masterpiece.”  I wish I could have seen the kid dressed as Sephiroth in the audience somewhere when the NSO knocked “One Winged Angel”(from FF7) out of the park.  You have never truly heard a piece like this until you can feel the thundering of the drums in your ribcage. 

Perhaps the element that struck me most about PLAY! was how incredibly beneficial it was to all involved.  The NSO gets a piece of the younger audience, and the audience gets music that they identify with on a very deep level, having heard it over the course of many hours.  The audience was asked how many of them were seeing the NSO for the first time, and the cheers that came back were huge – if I had to guess, I’d put it at around 75%.  That’s a good deal of exposure!  So, I say to you – if you are a gamer, go see this concert.  If you are a music lover, go see this concert.  You will be touched either way. 

And as for me, the future music teacher?  Well, let’s just say that there is a small statue of a certain general-turned-singer in my room that I look at when I need some inspiration, and on Friday night, I was able to have things come full circle – hearing my favorite composer’s music on the same instruments that I performed with earlier this year on the Bach St. Matthew’s Passion.  Thanks for a great night, Nobuo.