><))o> PLAY! A Video Game Symphony
PLAY! A Video Game Symphony Asian Premiere concert, which took place at the Esplanade Concert Hall on 15th and 16th June, was scheduled as part of the month-long Singapore Arts Festival. To make this concert a reality, NAC specially invited PLAY! Music Director, Arnie Roth to Singapore. NAC also put together a Singapore Festival Orchestra and engaged The Vocal Consort as the chorus. Since NAC wants an 80-strong choir and consort has only roughly about 40 active members, we got NUS choir to perform with us.
From the performer's point of view: the concert SO TOTALLY ROCK!
First of all, we got to work with the internationally-renowed Arnie Roth who was a Grammy award-winning artist and possessed a wealth of experience in orchestra conducting as well as symphony music composition. He was the person who single-handedly arranged all the video game songs into symphony music and made PLAY! a reality. Recently, my niece was at my house for a family dinner and she was watching the "Barbie Princess movies", what seems to be the lastest craze among primary school girls her age. Anyway, i was watching the film as well (cos the animation and music are really magnetizing) and at the end where the credits appear, guess whose name i saw? Arnie Roth! I was thinking back then "Wow...this guy is really something.."
The chorus along with the orchestra met Arnie Roth for the first time during our second combine rehearsal, just two days before the actual performance. In person, Arnie Roth was such a nice person and there was no air around him at all! Even when the chorus or orchestra screwed up at certain areas, he would tell us nicely and request that we do it again until we got it right. And he smiles alot, which certainly puts us at ease and made the performance much more enjoyable. His style of conducting is accurate and precise, toned down at the right places like the piped organ solo for Final Fantasy's Dancing Mad while bursting with energy for other pieces like Chrono Trigger/Cross, Metal Gear Solid.
For those of you who went for the last performance on Saturday night, did you know that you were the only crowd who got to experience the second encore? Arnie Roth didn't have the second encore piece for the previous two performance but decided to do One-Winged Angel again for the last performance! He's just a really great guy through and through!
Secondly, I got to meet really accomplished composers like Yuzo Kiroshi and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.
Remember those primary school days when we used to go to the arcade and even before you enter the arcade, you will hear this familiar tune "Daytona....Let's go away! Daytooona...!!", blasting from the Daytona USA racing console that is always strategically placed somewhere near the entrance of the arcade?
For me personally, 1. Daytona USA has always my favourite racing game (its the ONLY game that i play and play well at the arcade), 2. I loved the theme song "Let's Go Away" because it really give you the "high" feeling while you are playing the game. So can you imagine what happen when i found out that the composer cum singer of Daytona USA, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, was in the house? I went ballastic! And the best thing of all? He performed an item during the concert. With the exception of the matinee on the Saturday afternoon, he sang "Let's Go Away" for the other 2 concerts. Without fail, the crowd would always get so high after his rock-style performance, screaming at the top of their lungs. Without fail also, he would bring with him onstage, a stuff Sonic, which he would hurled (always in the same direction and at the same angle : stage right, roughly 30 degrees)into the audience.
During the last performance, he did a little gimmick : turning around and pretended to throw the stuff sonic at us and quickly did a 180 degrees turn, and threw the sonic at the audience. We groaned and grumbled, a display of our disappointment, much to the delight of the audience i supposed. Overall, Takenubo Mitsuyoshi's high-octane guest performance and energizing personality made the concert alot more unconventional!
In person, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi was especially a super hyper, awfully-nice and humble person!! When hafiz and i approached him at the backstage for his autograph, he readily agreed and even made small talk with us, complimenting on our performance. He even offered a handshake (talk about true star quailty!). I was star-struck for an least half-an-hour after that (how could i not be when i grew up, playing Daytona USA and singing to the theme song?). During the last performance intermission, when we bumped into him at the backstage, he recognise hafiz and told him that the chorus was "very good" and did the "thumbs-up" sign.
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi also composed Sedge Tree for Shenmue and Shemue II, which has a captivating melody that seems to speak of a poignant love story. It was a genere that is completely different from Daytona USA, displaying Mitsuyoshi's wide spectrum of musicality.
Another composer that we met was Yuzo Koshiro, the composer of The Revenge of Super Shinobi. His composition received the highest number of votes, in the GameAxis online poll, as the extra bonus theme to be performed at the Asian Premiere concert. He was kind of reserved person...I didn't get to cross path with him much though.
Thirdly, there were 3 large-size screens suspended above the orchestra, broadcasting all the scenes from the video game titles.
These includes the old school favourites like Super Mario Bros., Super Shinobi, The Legend of Zelda to some of the more sophisticated animations like HALO, World of Warcraft and the newly-released Lost Odyssey. The screens provided another dimension to the concert. The videos aired were a feast for the eyes and when accompanied by the symphony music, it was a cinematic experience for us and the audience!
Fourthly, the Singapore Festival Orchestra played beautifully. With each performance, they just got better and by the time we had our last performance, i was swooned over by the music and found myself swinging to the rhythm, especially for the piece Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. I fell in love with the song. I have attached a YouTube clip below...listen to it and you will understand why this is such a captivating piece.
Lastly, the audience was such a hyper-active bunch. During the first night, which was supposedly attended by some the Ministers, the SVIPs and VIPs, the crowd was more subdued, more reserved. But the audience for the two performances on Saturday was just incredible, especially the Saturday night one (somehow i have this feeling that gamers make up a large proportion of the concert-goers for these two performances). There were truckloads of woof-whistling, screaming, thunderous applause from the audience for almost every piece that the orchestra did with the classic Final Fantasy's One-Winged Angel, receiving the most shouts and applause. When we did the song as the second encore, the crowd was went mad! Three seconds into the song, the crowd finally realised that arnie roth was doing One-Winged Angel again and the screaming/clapping came...(as a rule of thumb, clapping during mid-song is considered rude in a conventional concert. Then again, PLAY! is anything but conventional!). After we finished singing the song, there was a standing ovation from about 20 to 30 odd people.
At that instance, i felt really honoured to be part of this production. That night, the orchestra were really good (especially the strings, percussion and the keyboard), we the chorus made minimal mistakes as well (the entries and singing were precise), arnie roth looked extremely happy and pleased with us. For me, it was one of my best experience as a chorister, apart from the one where consort won the Open Mixed Superior and Folklore Category during the Olomouc compeition.
I am happy that possibly my last performance at Esplanade ended on such a high note.
There is even a newspaper review on the performance! Click here to read it.
I even spent S$40 and bought the More Friends: Music from Final Fantasy as a keepsake and got Arnie Roth to autograph...Woo~
To gamers (if you are reading this): there are some talks to bring Dear Friends concert to Singapore. Watch for it! If Nubuo Uematsu makes a guest appearance for the concert, it would be so cool! I would definitely want to be part of the performance!
Looking back, being part of consort has given me the opportunities to go places and meet incredible people. I cannot be any more thankful!
Below is a short clip of the actual performance:
Saturday, October 22, 2005 , 8:25 PM
><))o> End of syllabus = EXAMS!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005 , 11:27 AM
><))o> Guess what is a dunkey?
Wednesday, September 07, 2005 , 10:46 PM
><))o> I'm so faked?
Wednesday, August 31, 2005 , 3:29 PM
><))o> Into the 6th week of school
-peace out-
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