Play! On - A Review of ‘Play! A Video Game Symphony'

23.06.2007
Although not an avid gamer, not having the patience to actually complete a game… I have been able to play quite a few good games in the last 20 years. I have also become introduced to the magical work of Nobuo Uematsu through watching Final Fantasy Vll Advent Children (hereon referred to as FFVllAC). For those of you not familiar with Uematsu-san, he is the composer for most of the music from the Final Fantasy games as well as the 2005 CGI movie Final Fantasy Vll Advent Children.
Through his music, the games came to life for all who played the game and created new depth through the soundtrack for FFVllAC. There have been a few concerts dedicated to music from games and in particular Final Fantasy like ‘Voices’, ‘Dear Friends’, ‘More Friends’ and ‘Play!’. While trawling through the AdventChildren.net website I saw on one of their banners that new tour dates for Play! was out and it was coming to Singapore!
A quick visit to the ticketing website told me that I was out of luck. SOLD OUT!!! I could not believe it! But hang on… the next leg on their tour was Australia and they would be playing in Sydney. As I so happened to be going to Sydney around that week that they are playing there, I thought “This is it… I cannot possibly pass this up” and bought my tickets immediately. So the tickets were more expensive, so I will be watching it by myself (I don’t even watch movies alone on principle) at least it will be at the famed Sydney Opera House.
The day rolled around and I was so excited. I had landed at 5am in Sydney and was standing at the steps of the Sydney Opera House at 1.30pm. The show started at 2pm and it was a good crowd and I was pleased to note that it wasn’t just teenagers but people in their 20’s and 30’s who grew up at a time when video games became more affordable and were fans of not just the games but the music that created the compelling environment. I was one of the few saddo’s who turned up by myself. But who cares!?! It’s Nobuo Uematsu’s music live!
The ‘show’ started on time and Arnie Roth, the conductor for the Play! symphony rocked up to friendly applause. It was all very exciting as the orchestra prepared and the first song was music from Mario Bros. A favourite among many, it was incredibly cool to see gameplay shown on the screen as the orchestra recreated the music. It brought back so many memories! They showed the early versions of Mario from those that you can still find on handheld game consoles, to the later 3D version on the N64 which was an amazing game. It made you think back on the time when you were playing the game, the frustrations, the joy of completing a level... priceless.
There were many songs played that afternoon including some newer compositions. One that stood out was music from the game Blue Dragon that looked amazing. I think that one is only out for the XBox 360. Music by Nobuo Uematsu again.
The main reason I went to watch Play! was of course for music from Final Fantasy Vll. I almost despaired when the long awaited One Winged Angel (OWA) was not played in their line up of music. Luckily, Mr Roth decided to save the best for last and played it for the encore. It is really an impressive piece of music and the choir did a great job. As I am used to hearing the OWA sung by a Japanese choir, it was a little strange hearing the Australian choir sing the chorus pronouncing “Sephiroth!” correctly as spelt. The Japanese choir pronounces it as “Sephirosu” so it seemed a little cut off when they sang “Sephiroth”.
Maybe it was me but it just didn’t seem as menacing. Having the Black Mages perform the OWA version from VFFVll AC would have been incredible but I’m happy settling with just the standard orchestral version.
Also, was very disappointed that they did not show clips of Sephiroth in the big screens above the choir! What was with that? That was probably the only song that didn’t have accompanying scenes from the game. It kind of loses the effect a bit. I know for a fact that they do normally have the scene where Sephiroth is surrounded by flames (taken from FFVllAC) when they play OWA, I’ve seen clips filmed from other concerts on YouTube.
Besides that little glitch, it was a really nice experience and I hope Square Enix or Nobuo Uematsu will do another tour for Voices or just any tour that will play his wonderful compositions and of course with the Black Mages in tow of course. Here are some pictures I took with my phone:

Uematsu-san with a message for the fans