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173-728: In 2012, five new performances were scheduled, taking stage in Tokyo, Stockholm, and a reprise in Cologne. These performances featured slightly modified versions of the original arrangements, and like the original concerts, were sold out. Another performance was held in London in October 2016 by the London Symphony Orchestra . The original concert and the Tokyo concert both sparked the release of an album. These albums, along with

346-756: A British orchestra, appearing at the Salzburg Festival , conducted by Previn, Seiji Ozawa and Karl Böhm , in 1973, and playing at the Hollywood Bowl the following year. The lack of good rehearsal facilities to which Bernstein had objected was addressed in the 1970s when, jointly with the LPO, the LSO acquired and restored a disused church in Southwark , converting it into the Henry Wood Hall ,

519-534: A clash of dates. The LSO's board, which reflected the majority opinion of the players, refused to accommodate the principals, most of whom resigned en masse , to form the Sinfonia of London , a session ensemble that flourished from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, and then faded away. For fifteen years after the split the LSO did little film work, recording only six soundtracks between 1956 and 1971, compared with more than 70 films between 1940 and 1955. To replace

692-493: A concert, a player was at liberty to accept a better-paid engagement if it were offered. He would then engage another player to deputise for him at the original concert and the rehearsals for it. The treasurer of the Philharmonic Society described the system thus: "A, whom you want, signs to play at your concert. He sends B (whom you don't mind) to the first rehearsal. B, without your knowledge or consent, sends C to

865-493: A condition of sponsoring the LSO that the profit-sharing principle should be abandoned and the players made salaried employees. This renunciation of the principles for which the LSO had been founded was rejected by the players, and the offered subsidy was declined. At the end of the war the LSO had to face new competition. The BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra had survived

1038-426: A convenient and acoustically excellent rehearsal space and recording studio, opened in 1975. In 1978, two aspects of the LSO's non-symphonic work were recognised. The orchestra shared in three Grammy awards for the score to Star Wars ; and the LSO "Classic Rock" recordings, in the words of the orchestra's website, became hugely popular and provided handsome royalties. The recordings led to "Classic Rock" tours by

1211-608: A large red circle, and it includes a twenty-page booklet with comments from the original composers. The album's six tracks have a length of 1:20:50. A new printing of the Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo album on two CDs or three vinyl records, as well as a double album combination with the Final Symphony concert album (2015) was released by Laced Records in December 2016. The Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo album

1384-535: A limited audience to create an orchestral version of the soundtracks of Final Fantasy I and II , which have only been released together. The music of 20020220 was arranged for orchestra from the original songs composed by Nobuo Uematsu primarily by Uematsu himself and Shiro Hamaguchi , with "To Zanarkand" and "Yuna's Decision" arranged by Masashi Hamauzu , and was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra on February 20, 2002, at

1557-788: A little bit of everything" and "a must-have for any Final Fantasy fan". Voices – Music from Final Fantasy was a concert held in Yokohama , Japan on February 18, 2006, featuring vocal arrangements of Final Fantasy music. Based on compositions by Nobuo Uematsu, the music was performed by the Prima Vista Philharmonic Orchestra in the Pacifico Yokohama Conference and Convention Center , conducted by Arnie Roth , and sung by various performers. The 16 pieces and two encore songs were interspersed with announcements by Uematsu and Rieko Katayama,

1730-466: A little fun at the LSO's expense: from the viewpoint of a country that had long enjoyed permanent, salaried orchestras such as the Boston Symphony , it gently mocked the LSO's "bold stand for the sacred right of sending substitutes" Shortly after the beginning of the war the board of the orchestra received a petition from rank and file players protesting about Borsdorf's continued membership of

1903-462: A management committee was elected, comprising the four original movers and Alfred Hobday (viola) and E F (Fred) James (bassoon). Busby was appointed chief executive, a post variously titled "Secretary", "managing director", "general secretary" and "general manager" over the years. Borsdorf was a player of international reputation, and through his influence, the orchestra secured Hans Richter to conduct its first concert. Newman held no grudge against

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2076-410: A new public. Instead it put an old audience to flight." The LSO's difficulties were compounded by the satirical magazine Private Eye , which ran a series of defamatory articles about the orchestra. The articles were almost wholly untrue and the magazine was forced to pay substantial libel damages, but in the short term serious damage was done to the orchestra's reputation and morale. In August 1984,

2249-533: A perfect score and an unconditional recommendation." Benjamin Schmädig of the German site 4players.de said of the album " Symphonic Fantasies represents memories of great emotional moments. The orchestra and choir put in all their strength, all their subtlety in these moments." He further complimented Jonne Valtonen, saying that he "knows exactly how to arrange the known motifs in such an imaginative way that they tell

2422-507: A rock music style, performed their songs "The Rocking Grounds" and "Maybe I'm a Lion", and joined with the orchestra to perform "One-Winged Angel", while RIKKI sang "Suteki da Ne" as she had in the original game. Emiko Shiratori performed both the Japanese and English versions of "Melodies of Life" in a single piece, opera singers Stephenie Woodling, Chad Berlinghier, and Todd Robinson sang the vocal components of "Opera "Maria & Draco"", and

2595-584: A selection of musical tracks from the games, composed by Nobuo Uematsu, arranged for orchestra by Shiro Hamaguchi, Tsuyoshi Sekito, and Michio Okamiya, and performed by an orchestra conducted by Arnie Roth on May 16, 2005, at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California. Much like the 20020220 concert, they were accompanied by several different groups. The Black Mages , a band led by Nobuo Uematsu that arranges Final Fantasy music into

2768-751: A single game. A series of concerts of music from Final Fantasy XIV began in 2017, titled Eorzean Symphony . The series began in September with a three-night set of concerts in Tokyo performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, led by conductor Hirofumi Kurita. It continued in June 2018 with another concert in Los Angeles and in then again in August in Dortmund, Germany. An album was released on December 20, 2017, containing music from

2941-406: A single principal conductor. Among the guests were Elgar, Beecham, Otto Klemperer , Bruno Walter , Wilhelm Furtwängler and Serge Koussevitzky ; soloists in the 1920s included Sergei Rachmaninoff , Artur Schnabel and the young Yehudi Menuhin . Revenues were substantial, and the orchestra seemed to many to be entering into a golden age. In fact, for lack of any serious competition in the 1920s,

3114-670: A strong following like the older songs. Released on December 4, 2007, to coincide with the first concert of the tour, the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy album features the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir Allmänna Sången , and contains most songs performed at that concert. It was recorded in August at the Stockholm Concert Hall. The CD is sold at all of the concert venues and online at

3287-541: A trumpeter, John Solomon. Busby organised a meeting at St. Andrew's Hall, not far from the Queen's Hall. Invitations were sent to present and former members of the Queen's Hall Orchestra. About a hundred players attended. Busby explained the scheme: a new ensemble , the London Symphony Orchestra, to be run on co-operative lines, "something akin to a Musical Republic", with a constitution that gave

3460-576: A younger generation, Georg Solti , began working with the LSO; Fleischmann persuaded the management of the Vienna Festival to engage the LSO with Solti, Stokowski and Monteux for the 1961 Festwochen. While in Vienna, Fleischmann persuaded Monteux to accept the chief conductorship of the orchestra. Though 86 years old, Monteux asked for, and received, a 25-year contract with a 25-year option of renewal. He lived for another three years, working with

3633-431: Is a role-playing video game developed by Square , spawning a video game series that became the central focus of the franchise. The primary composer of music for the main series was Nobuo Uematsu , who single-handedly composed the soundtracks for the first nine games, as well as directing the production of many of the soundtrack albums. Music for the spin-off series and main series games beginning with Final Fantasy X

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3806-563: Is a concert tour featuring music from the Final Fantasy series that began touring on December 4, 2007, in Stockholm , Sweden and continues to date. Unlike previous tours, it is a worldwide tour. Distant Worlds was created by Arnie Roth and Nobuo Uematsu and is produced by AWR Music Productions. Launched in conjunction with the twentieth anniversary of Final Fantasy , the two-hour-long concerts include music from every single game of

3979-499: Is still in place in 2022, benefiting more than 60,000 people every year. In September 1988, Michael Tilson Thomas succeeded Abbado as chief conductor. In 1989, the Royal Philharmonic Society established its Orchestra Award for "excellence in playing and playing standards"; the LSO was the first winner. The LSO visited Japan in 1990 with Bernstein and Tilson Thomas. The conductors and players took part in

4152-807: The Fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert held in Leipzig. As their ideas and plans materialized, three projects were set in motion to determine the interest of a younger audience in classical music performance and the aptitude of the WDR orchestra in focusing on a new source of compositions. The first project was PROMS: That's Sound, That's Rhythm , held in early 2008, featuring a mixture of classical works and video game music, ranging from works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Morton Gould as well as arrangements of music from video games such as Shenmue and Castlevania previously featured in

4325-649: The Play! A Video Game Symphony world tour from 2006 onwards, for which Nobuo Uematsu composed the opening fanfare that accompanies each performance. The music made up one fourth of the Symphonic Fantasies concerts in September 2009 and in 2012 which were produced by the creators of the Symphonic Game Music Concert series and conducted by Arnie Roth; music from the Chrono series ,

4498-626: The Star Wars series. At the turn of the twentieth century there were no permanent salaried orchestras in London. The main orchestras were those of Covent Garden , the Philharmonic Society and the Queen's Hall ; their proprietors engaged players individually for each concert or for a season. As there were competing demands for the services of the finest players it was an accepted practice that, even though under contract to play for

4671-498: The Chrono suite, Rony Barrak joined the orchestra and performed on his signature darbuka . A surprise encore was performed after the final suite, which took the form of a medley of the final boss themes from each game. Rony Barrak returned on stage as a soloist for the encore. No video screens or other form of tools were used during the concert, with only minimal lighting effects at certain parts for atmosphere being employed. The event

4844-541: The Courtauld family. Originally Sargent and Beecham had in mind a reorganised version of the LSO, but the orchestra baulked at weeding out and replacing underperforming players. In 1932 Beecham lost patience and agreed with Sargent to set up a new orchestra from scratch. The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), as it was named, consisted of 106 players including a few young musicians straight from music college, many established players from provincial orchestras, and 17 of

5017-757: The Distant Worlds II concert in Stockholm, the additional pieces performed were added to the setlist, and for every concert afterward different songs out of that rotation have been chosen for each performance. "Kiss Me Goodbye" from Final Fantasy XII was played at the June 18, 2010 Detroit show, though it was not officially added to the general setlist. It was played again at the April 1, 2011 concert in New York City, which featured an expanded setlist over two concerts. At that time Square Enix said that

5190-483: The Oricon charts and stayed on the charts for one week. After the concert in Tokyo, a second album was released. Titled Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo , the two-disc album is a recording of that performance, including the encore. The album, produced by Merregnon Studios and mixed by a team of sound engineers from Japan and Germany, was released on June 11, 2012. Its cover is a modified version of the original European album with

5363-641: The Stockholm Concert Hall on June 9, 2012. The concert was performed by Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Katarina Choir, conducted by Andreas Hanson. Like the other concerts, the 2012 European concerts were sold out. Four years later, on October 6, 2016, the Symphonic Fantasies concert was performed in London at the Barbican Centre by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus . Selections from

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5536-548: The Symphonic Game Music Concerts . The second project, held in August 2008, was a composer specific concert titled Symphonic Shades - Hülsbeck in Concert , focusing entirely on the works of German video game composer Chris Hülsbeck . After the concert, Fechner revealed in an interview the existence of the third project, saying that he and Böcker would be involved in another concert of video game music

5709-566: The Tokyo International Forum . The orchestra was conducted by Taizou Takemoto, and the concert was hosted by Masakazu Morita and Mayuko Aoki , the Japanese voice actors for Tidus and Yuna from Final Fantasy X . The orchestra played 17 songs over a period of almost two hours. The setlist ranged covered songs from the very first Final Fantasy game through Final Fantasy X , the latest game to have been released. Their rendition of "Suteki da Ne" from Final Fantasy X

5882-404: The music of Secret of Mana , Yasunori Mitsuda for the music of Chrono Trigger and Cross , and Nobuo Uematsu for the music of the Final Fantasy series . For the concert, Jonne Valtonen returned as the lead arranger; he had previously been the arranger for video game music concerts since 2005, including Symphonic Shades . He was given complete freedom to arrange the music based on

6055-400: The 1911 Musical Times article indicates otherwise. Richter retired from conducting in 1911, and Elgar was elected conductor-in-chief for the 1911–12 season. Elgar conducted six concerts, Arthur Nikisch three, and Willem Mengelberg , Fritz Steinbach and Gustave Doret one each. As a conductor Elgar did not prove to be a big enough box-office draw, and after one season he was replaced by

6228-430: The 1964 world tour. The orchestra played at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony , conducted by Sir Simon Rattle . In March 2015, the LSO simultaneously announced the departure of Gergiev as principal conductor at the end of 2015, and the appointment of Sir Simon Rattle as its music director from September 2017, with an initial contract of five years. In February 2016, the orchestra announced that beginning with

6401-411: The 2016–17 season Gianandrea Noseda would be titled "Principal Guest Conductor" (joining the orchestra's other Principal Guest Conductor, Daniel Harding , who held that post 2006-2017), and that Michael Tilson Thomas would be titled "Conductor Laureate" and Andre Previn would be titled "Conductor Emeritus." In January 2021, the LSO announced an extension of Rattle's contract as music director until

6574-485: The Arts Council's conditions for subsidy, and changed the LSO's constitution to replace profit-sharing with salaries. With a view to raising its playing standards it engaged Josef Krips as conductor. His commitments in Vienna preventing him from becoming the LSO's chief conductor until 1950, but from his first concert with the orchestra in December 1948 he influenced the playing for the better. His chosen repertoire

6747-462: The BBC and Beecham, they went their separate ways. In 1929 the BBC began recruiting for the new BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult . The prospect of joining a permanent, salaried orchestra was attractive enough to induce some LSO players to defect. The new orchestra immediately received enthusiastic reviews that contrasted starkly with the severe press criticisms of the LSO's playing. According to

6920-531: The BBC and Beecham. Critics including Neville Cardus recognised the continued improvement in the LSO's playing: "On this evening's hearing the London Symphony Orchestra is likely, after all, to give its two rivals a gallant run. Under Sir Hamilton it will certainly take on a style of sincere expression, distinguished from the virtuoso brilliance cultivated by the B.B.C. Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Beecham." Among

7093-500: The Barbican. In the first years of the residency, the orchestra came close to financial disaster, primarily because of over-ambitious programming and the poor ticket sales that resulted. The Times commented that the LSO "were tempted by their own need for challenge (and a siren chorus of critics) to begin a series of more modern and adventurous music: six nights a week of Tippett , Berlioz , Webern , Stockhausen designed to draw in

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7266-604: The CSUF University Singers, a local choir, performed as part of "One-Winged Angel". A recorded album was released on February 15, 2006, by Square Enix with the catalog number SQEX-10065. The album spans 13 tracks and covers a duration of 74:54. The album was well received by critics such as Patrick Gann of RPGFan, who said that "the recording quality is great, almost every song is aimed to please, and rarely do Square Enix fail in this regard". Sophia of Square Enix Music Online concurred, terming it "an album with

7439-765: The Classical Album Top 5 of both the Billboard Charts and the Official UK Charts. Final Symphony was followed by Final Symphony II , a concert of music from Final Fantasy V , VIII , IX , and XIII . It features long arrangements like the Final Symphony concerts. The majority of the music was originally composed by Nobuo Uematsu, while the Final Fantasy XIII suite was originally composed by Masashi Hamauzu. Produced and directed by Böcker again, Valtonen created

7612-477: The English voice actor for Final Fantasy X ' s Tidus, and featured large screens hanging above the orchestra playing scenes relevant to the music being performed. Like the concerts before it, Dear Friends featured several groups and instruments in addition to the orchestra, including a guitar for "Dear Friends", castagnettes for "Vamo' Alla Flamenco", and piano for "At Zanarkand" and "Cloud Smiles", which at

7785-543: The February issue of Famitsu as well as on their official website. Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo was the first all-European video game concert production to take place in Japan. More than 4600 fans were in attendance, and the concerts sold out within days. The arrangements and tempo were slightly modified from the original concert, and the encore was changed by Wanamo to add elements from an additional Final Fantasy song. At

7958-512: The Hallé and the Royal Philharmonic Society. For a year he took the role, though not the title, of chief conductor of the LSO. In 1916 his millionaire father died and Beecham's financial affairs became too complicated for any further musical philanthropy on his part. In 1917 the LSO's directors agreed unanimously that they would promote no more concerts until the end of the war. The orchestra played for other managements, and managed to survive, although

8131-573: The Japanese cover has an image of a white book. Böcker produced the European album, and was a consultant for the production of the Japanese release. The album does not contain the encore suite, which was released as a single on iTunes on December 14, 2010. The album's five tracks have a duration of 1:12:30, with the encore track bringing it to 1:20:56. Upon release, it reach position #13 on the German classical Media Control Charts for sales in September 2010. The Japanese release reached position #102 on

8304-535: The LSO allowed its standards of playing to slip. In 1927 the Berlin Philharmonic, under Furtwängler, gave two concerts at the Queen's Hall. These, and later concerts by the same orchestra in 1928 and 1929, made obvious the poor standards then prevailing in London. Both the BBC and Beecham had ambitions to bring London's orchestral standards up to those of Berlin. After an early attempt at co-operation between

8477-467: The LSO has been based in the Barbican Centre in the City of London . Among its programmes there have been large-scale festivals celebrating composers as diverse as Berlioz , Mahler and Leonard Bernstein . The LSO claims to be the world's most recorded orchestra; it has made gramophone recordings since 1912 and has played on more than 200 soundtrack recordings for the cinema, of which the best known include

8650-428: The LSO in 1954, and the following year tensions between the orchestral principals and the rank-and-file players erupted into an irreconcilable dispute. The principals argued that the future of the LSO lay in profitable session work for film companies, rather than in the overcrowded field of London concerts. They also wished to be free to accept such engagements individually, absenting themselves from concerts if there were

8823-401: The LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras . The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood 's Queen's Hall Orchestra because of a new rule requiring players to give the orchestra their exclusive services. The LSO itself later introduced a similar rule for its members. From the outset the LSO was organised on co-operative lines, with all players sharing the profits at

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8996-626: The LSO lost work it had long been used to, including the Covent Garden seasons, the Royal Philharmonic Society concerts and the Courtauld-Sargent concerts. The orchestra persuaded Sir Hamilton Harty , the popular conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, to move from Manchester to become the LSO's principal conductor. Harty brought with him eight of the Hallé's leading players to replenish the LSO's ranks, depleted by defections to

9169-458: The LSO play in Music Night in one week than in sixty-five years of LSO concerts." Several series of the programme were screened between 1971 and 1977. Previn's popularity with the public enabled him and the LSO to programme works that under other conductors could have been box-office disasters, such as Messiaen 's Turangalila Symphony. In the early 1970s the LSO recorded two firsts for

9342-422: The LSO to within weeks of his death. Members of the LSO believed that in those few years he had transformed the orchestra; Neville Marriner said that Monteux "made them feel like an international orchestra ... He gave them extended horizons and some of his achievements with the orchestra, both at home and abroad, gave them quite a different constitution." Announcing Monteux's appointment, Fleischmann added that

9515-530: The LSO would also work frequently with Antal Doráti and the young Colin Davis . Together with Tuckwell, chairman of the orchestra, Fleischmann worked to create the LSO Trust, a fund to finance tours and provide sick and holiday pay for LSO players, thus ending, as Morrison says, "nearly sixty years of 'no play, no pay' ... this was a revolution." They also pioneered formal sponsorship by commercial firms:

9688-417: The LSO's leading members. To try to raise its own standards the LSO had engaged Mengelberg, a famous orchestral trainer, known as a perfectionist. He made it a precondition that the deputy system must be abandoned, which occurred in 1929. He conducted the orchestra for the 1930 season, and music critics commented on the improvement in the playing. Nonetheless, as patently the third-best orchestra in London,

9861-588: The LSO, refused to continue when he discovered that five leading principals had absented themselves. EMI took Boult's side, and the orchestra apologised. In 1971, John Culshaw of BBC television commissioned "André Previn's Music Night", bringing classical music to a large new audience. Previn would talk informally direct to camera and then turn and conduct the LSO, whose members were dressed in casual sweaters or shirts rather than formal evening clothes. The programme attracted unprecedented viewing figures for classical music; Morrison writes, "More British people heard

10034-498: The LSO, writes of "stodgy programmes of insipid Cowen, worthy Stanford, dull Parry and mediocre Mackenzie"; they put the Parisian public off to a considerable degree, and the players ended up out of pocket. In its early years Richter was the LSO's most frequently-engaged conductor, with four or five concerts every season; the orchestra's website and Morrison's 2004 book both count him as the orchestra's first chief conductor, though

10207-463: The LSO. Although he had done as much as anyone to found the orchestra, had lived in Britain for 30 years and was married to an Englishwoman, Borsdorf was regarded by some colleagues as an enemy alien and was forced out of the orchestra. During the war the musical life of Britain was drastically curtailed. The LSO was helped to survive by large donations from Sir Thomas Beecham , who also subsidised

10380-582: The LSO: he frequently made his major recordings with the Boston or Chicago Symphony Orchestras or the Vienna Philharmonic . One of the LSO's principals commented, "Although we were sweating our guts playing those vast Mahler symphonies for ... Abbado, he would go and record them with other orchestras, which made us feel like second, maybe even third choice". In 1982, the LSO took up residence at

10553-680: The MC. As in previous Final Fantasy concerts, many of the pieces were sung by the original performers from the game. Emiko Shiratori sang " Melodies of Life ", Rikki performed " Suteki da ne ", Izumi Masuda reprised her role in "Memoro de la Ŝtono", and Angela Aki sang "Kiss me Good-bye", to date the only song from Final Fantasy XII to be performed at a Final Fantasy concert. Angela Aki also sang " Eyes on Me ", originally sung by Faye Wong in Final Fantasy VIII . The Black Mages performed their song "Advent: One Winged Angel" along with

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10726-639: The Netherlands. Distant Worlds II: More Music From Final Fantasy was a concert in the Distant Worlds series featuring music from Final Fantasy that was performed on June 12, 2010, in Stockholm , Sweden, just as the first Distant Worlds concert was. Arnie Roth returned to the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra with a completely new program presenting more pieces from Final Fantasy . Simultaneously with

10899-749: The Proms , the LSO took over for Wood. The Carnegie Trust, with the support of the British government, contracted the LSO to tour Britain, taking live music to towns where symphony concerts were hitherto unknown. The orchestra's loss of manpower was far worse in the Second World War than in the First. Between 1914 and 1918 there were 33 members of the LSO away on active service; between 1939 and 1945 there were more than 60, of whom seven were killed. The orchestra found replacements wherever it could, including

11072-399: The Queen's Hall Orchestra earlier, and the other 21 had no connection with Wood and Newman. In a profile of the orchestra in 1911, The Musical Times commented: Thus encouraged, the committee ventured to arrange for a series of symphony concerts at Queen's Hall. They had no regular conductor, and to this day they have pursued this policy of freedom. Dr. (now Sir) Frederic Cowen conducted

11245-404: The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra released a video of its critically acclaimed performance of the Final Fantasy VI Symphonic Poem from Final Symphony Stockholm online (available to watch for free and on demand). The Final Symphony album, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra in the presence of composer Nobuo Uematsu at London's Abbey Road Studios, was released early 2015, entering

11418-444: The Second World War broke out the orchestra's plans had to be almost completely changed. During the First World War the public's appetite for concert-going diminished drastically, but from the start of the Second it was clear that there was a huge demand for live music. The LSO arranged a series of concerts conducted by Wood, with whom the orchestra was completely reconciled. When the BBC evacuated its orchestra from London and abandoned

11591-426: The Tokyo concerts; a Blu-ray release contains sixteen tracks as well as video from the concerts, while a CD release contains eight tracks. The album sold over 13,100 copies. Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestra World Tour is a concert tour beginning in 2021 containing music from Final Fantasy VII Remake . The pieces are new orchestral arrangements of music from the game, itself containing new versions of songs from

11764-442: The WDR." Audun Sorlie of Original Sound Version called it "the best symphonic game arrangement CD you can get your hands on," and further added "for every game music fan out there, especially the ones with a taste for Square Enix, this is the definitive pick for you." Chris Greening of Square Enix Music Online gave the album the score of 10 out of 10, and stated that it "offers a definitive tribute to Square Enix" and "certainly deserves

11937-467: The album as a whole "rather enjoyable". Patrick Dell of Soundtrack Central felt that the album was "wonderful" and "an impressive display", although he greatly disliked the performance of the choir. Dave of Square Enix Music Online was not as impressed by the album, saying that many of the performances were "lacking cohesion and direction", although he felt that overall it was "satisfactory" and "worth repeated listens". Sophia of Square Enix Music Online, on

12110-402: The arrangements for the Final Fantasy V section, Wanamo worked on the VIII and IX portions, and Hamauzu arranged his own compositions from XIII with orchestration by Valtonen. A concert was performed at the Barbican Centre in London by the London Symphony Orchestra on September 12, 2015, and later an earlier performance on August 29 in Bonn , Germany by the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn. After

12283-414: The auspices of Sony Music Distribution . The album was released in Europe on September 17, 2010, published by Decca Records . Both album versions feature identical track listings and production, with the only differences being the artwork and provided booklet. The artwork for the European album was designed by the German design house, schech, and features a cross between a violin and a game controller, while

12456-661: The bands of army regiments based in London, whose brass and woodwind players were unofficially recruited. During the war it had become clear that private patronage was no longer a practical means of sustaining Britain's musical life; a state body, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts – the forerunner of the Arts Council – was established, and given a modest budget for public subsidy. The council made it

12629-501: The banking firm UBS, the orchestra opened LSO St Luke's , its music education centre, in a former church near the Barbican. The following year the orchestra celebrated its centenary, with a gala concert attended by the LSO's Patron, the Queen . After serving as managing director for 21 years, Clive Gillinson left to become chief executive of Carnegie Hall , New York. His successor was Kathryn McDowell. In 2006, Daniel Harding joined Michael Tilson Thomas as principal guest conductor. At

12802-468: The basis of specific Final Fantasy concerts and concert series. The first such concert was the 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy concert on February 20, 2002, which sparked a six-concert tour in Japan entitled Tour de Japon: Music from Final Fantasy beginning in March 2004. A North American concert series titled Dear Friends - Music From Final Fantasy- followed from 2004 to 2005, and after its conclusion

12975-406: The boundaries between game music and traditional classical works." The composers themselves expressed great regard for the concert and the arrangement. Yoko Shimomura noted she was extremely pleased with Valtonen's arrangement of Kingdom Hearts, feeling it "very colorful and beautiful, just superb really". Hiroki Kikuta stated that Valtonen's arrangement "defied the framework of regular orchestra and

13148-538: The charismatic Hungarian maestro Nikisch. Nikisch was invited to tour North America in 1912, and despite his long association with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, he insisted that the LSO should be contracted for the tour. The orchestra, 100-strong (all men except for the harpist), was booked to sail on the Titanic , but the tour schedule was changed at the last minute, and

13321-705: The composers for Final Fantasy X , along with Jonne Valtonen and Roger Wanamo, and the arranged works are based on compositions by him and Nobuo Uematsu, who acts as a consultant for the concerts. Conducted by Eckehard Stier ( Drammatica by Yoko Shimomura; Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo concerts), the concert featured pianists including Benyamin Nuss (Wuppertal and London in 2013), Mischa Cheung (Tampere in 2014; Hong Kong in 2017; Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and Vienna in 2018) and Katharina Treutler (Tokyo, Aarhus and Stockholm in 2014; Amsterdam, San Diego, Baltimore and San Francisco in 2016; Melbourne in 2018). On October 10, 2014,

13494-443: The concert series was expected to run for at least three more years. Uematsu said that he preferred for the tour to add arrangements of older pieces from the series, as he felt that they are what fans were more interested in; he and Roth intended to continue to add more arrangements to the setlist. He was hesitant for pieces from Final Fantasy XIII and XIV to be added, as he did not feel that they had been around long enough to build

13667-439: The concert was greater than expected, with tickets selling out in three days. After "many fans pleaded for another chance to see the concert", Dear Friends was expanded into a full concert tour the following year, conducted by Arnie Roth . Roth took on the role of conductor for the series after trying to get the show to be performed by his Chicago Pops orchestra, and hearing that other tour locations were hesitant about putting on

13840-562: The concert were Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II from the Kingdom Hearts series, Secret of Mana , Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross from the Chrono series, and the Final Fantasy series. In order to select the pieces presented, the original composers were consulted to assemble a list of their personal favorites. The composers were Yoko Shimomura for the music of Kingdom Hearts , Hiroki Kikuta for

14013-555: The concert, a new CD with the same repertoire was released under the name Distant Worlds II: Music From Final Fantasy . The recording was done by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Arnie Roth in January 2010. The name Distant Worlds II only refers to the Stockholm concert; the series itself has continued under the original Distant Worlds name with the new arrangements added to its permanent rotation. Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy Returning Home

14186-622: The concert, along with ones from Final Symphony and Final Symphony II , were performed at Symphonic Memories concerts on June 9, 2018 in Stockholm, March 14, 2019 in Oulu , Finland, June 6, 2019 in St. Gallen , Switzerland, December 1, 2019 in Kawasaki , Japan, and April 7, 2023 in Lyon , France. The Kawasaki concert was released as an album by Square Enix as Symphonic Memories - music from Square Enix

14359-528: The concert. He has said that he tried to add to the concerts his personal touch in the areas of "drama and timing". Different orchestras were used in each performance, though the format and setlist remained the same. More Friends was a single concert performed while the Dear Friends series was still touring. It was meant to loosely correspond with the one-year anniversary of the first Dear Friends concert, also held in Los Angeles. The concert contained

14532-400: The concerts themselves, were heavily praised, both for the quality of the performance and for the quality of Valtonen's arrangements, which overlaid themes from multiple pieces rather than relying on a traditional medley. Thomas Böcker and then WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne director Winfried Fechner began collaborating on orchestrated video game concerts in 2007, after Fechner had attended

14705-710: The conclusion of the Symphonic Odysseys concert in Cologne by Merregnon Studios on July 9, 2011, the WDR announced that Symphonic Fantasies would return to Germany in 2012. The concerts were held on July 6 and 7, 2012 at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. The concert was again performed by the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne and WDR Radio Choir Cologne, conducted by Niklas Wíllen. On March 26, 2012, Merregnon Studios announced that Symphonic Fantasies would also be performed at

14878-455: The conductor of his promenade concerts , Henry Wood , agreed that they could no longer tolerate the deputy system. After a rehearsal in which Wood was faced with dozens of unfamiliar faces in his own orchestra, Newman came to the platform and announced: "Gentlemen, in future there will be no deputies! Good morning!" This caused a furore. Orchestral musicians were not highly paid, and removing their chances of better-paid engagements permitted by

15051-423: The conventional medley structure more commonly heard in video game music arrangements. The fanfare, titled Fanfare Overture , was done in a style of traditional fanfares with some accentuated textures in order to introduce all the elements of the orchestra. The Kingdom Hearts suite featured seven songs from the two titles, and was arranged as a romantic piano concerto. Secret of Mana featured six songs featured in

15224-434: The critic W J Turner the LSO's problem was not that its playing had deteriorated, but that it had failed to keep up with the considerable improvements in playing achieved over the past two decades by the best European and American orchestras. In 1931, Beecham was approached by the rising young conductor Malcolm Sargent with a proposal to set up a permanent, salaried orchestra with a subsidy guaranteed by Sargent's patrons,

15397-619: The debut performances, the London Symphony Orchestra traveled to Japan to perform the concert there three times: in Osaka on September 27, and twice in Yokohama on October 4, the first time a non-Japanese orchestra ever performed a game concert in the country. Additional performances took place in Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands. The tour continues to date. A concert devoted solely to music from Final Fantasy X , titled Dreams of Zanarkand ,

15570-458: The decision to focus on Square Enix was made due to the large library of games to choose from, all of which he felt had a distinct sound, and many of which were very well known in Germany. An emphasis was put on balancing out the concert program and the arrangements, so that the music would appeal to first-time listeners, classical music fans, and longtime gamers. The titles chosen to be featured in

15743-412: The departing principals the LSO recruited rising young players including Hugh Maguire , Neville Marriner and Simon Streatfeild in the string sections, Gervase de Peyer and William Waterhouse in the woodwinds, and Barry Tuckwell and Denis Wick in the brass. With the new intake the orchestra rapidly advanced in standards and status. The average age of the LSO players dropped to about 30. In 1956

15916-459: The deputy system was a serious financial blow to many of them. While travelling by train to play under Wood at a music festival in the north of England in May 1904, soon after Newman's announcement, some of his leading players discussed the situation and agreed to try to form their own orchestra. The principal movers were three horn players ( Adolf Borsdorf , Thomas Busby, and Henri van der Meerschen) and

16089-499: The end of 2006, Davis stood down as principal conductor and became president of the LSO in January 2007, its first since the death of Bernstein in 1990. Valery Gergiev became principal conductor of the LSO on 1 January 2007. In Gergiev's first season in charge a complete cycle of Mahler Symphonies was given, with the Barbican Hall sold out for every concert. In 2009 Davis and the LSO celebrated 50 years of working together. In

16262-579: The end of each season. This practice continued for the orchestra's first four decades. The LSO underwent periods of eclipse in the 1930s and 1950s when it was regarded as inferior in quality to new London orchestras, to which it lost players and bookings: the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the 1930s and the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic after the Second World War. The profit-sharing principle

16435-422: The end of the 2023 season, at which time he is scheduled to stand down from the LSO and subsequently to take the title of conductor emeritus for life. Final Fantasy concerts Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and owned by Square Enix that includes video games , motion pictures , and other merchandise. The original Final Fantasy video game, published in 1987,

16608-723: The event, and Nuss and Barrak returned as soloists. The concerts were held at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Main Hall, and were performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus. The concerts were conducted by Eckehard Stier. In addition to the originally announced attendees, in attendance were guest of honors Hiroki Kikuta, Yoko Shimomura, and Yasunori Mitsuda, as well as guests such as video game composers Takenobu Mitsuyoshi , Yuzo Koshiro , Masashi Hamauzu , and Mahito Yokota . The concerts were featured extensively in

16781-406: The familiar stories from scratch." Denis Brown of the German site OnlineWelten said that for Square Enix fans, it is an obligatory purchase. Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo was also praised upon release. Jayson Napolitano of Destructoid said that the "arrangements are brilliant and are some of the best in the business," and that the addition of the encore was an improvement over the physical version of

16954-542: The film and music public. The LSO had begun its long historic journey as the premier film orchestra." In London Harty did not prove to be a box-office draw, and according to Morrison, he was "brutally and hurtfully" dropped in 1934, as his LSO predecessor Elgar had been in 1912. After this the orchestra did not appoint a chief conductor for nearly 20 years. By 1939 the orchestra's board was planning an ambitious programme for 1940, with guests including Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski , Erich Kleiber and George Szell . When

17127-478: The first concert of the series on October 27, 1904, and the others were conducted by Herr Arthur Nikisch, Mr. Fritz Steinbach, Sir Charles Stanford, M. Edouard Colonne, Sir Edward Elgar, and Mr. Georg Henschel. At every one of these concerts brilliant performances were given, and the reputation of the organization as one of the finest of its kind in the world was made. The orchestra made its first British tour in 1905, conducted by Sir Edward Elgar . Elgar's conducting

17300-435: The first seven titles in the series. Unlike the other suites, it featured a simpler structure, focusing more on each individual theme rather than overlapping multiple pieces. This was due to a request by Uematsu that the arrangement remain similar to those of prior Final Fantasy concerts . The orchestra received about two weeks of rehearsal time prior to their performances, more than any other game concert before. The concert

17473-431: The following September. The third project was to be a concert of music from one game company, focusing on multiple titles released by the same developer. This company was later confirmed to be Square Enix when Fechner announced Symphonic Fantasies as a video game music concert to take place on September 12, 2009. A website was set up for announcements, interviews and other concert information. Böcker later explained that

17646-498: The following year. The September 12, 2009 concert in Cologne was recorded and released as an album titled Symphonic Fantasies . It was announced to be in production on April 15, 2010, and made available for pre-order. In an interview, Fechner stated the album was being mixed and edited at a "prestigious European studio". This was later revealed to be Abbey Road Studios in London. The album was first released in Japan on September 15, 2010, published by Square Enix Japan's own label under

17819-417: The general outline given to him by Böcker. Valtonen spent six months on the arrangements, during which Valtonen studied each song and referred to the composer's original intended expression. No Japanese guest arrangers were used for this concert in order to maintain a unique European take on the source material, but Valtonen brought in former classmate and close friend Roger Wanamo to assist on the arrangement of

17992-589: The general rotation. The entire 2010 Japan concert was recorded live for a DVD and 2-CD set which was later released on January 19, 2011. Beginning in 2014, Square Enix began touring a new series, A New World , which featured cut-down versions of the arrangements for Distant Worlds , edited by Arnie Roth, and played in smaller venues. The concerts, marketed as more "intimate" versions of the Distant Worlds concerts, feature more solo and duet performances to correspond with their smaller chamber orchestras. Like

18165-413: The greatest musical and social experiences of my life. Each arrangement took listeners on an extended journey through the atmospheres, emotions, and melodies of their respective series." Polish site GameMusic.net's Kamil Rojek said in his report that " Symphonic Fantasies is a significant turning point in the history of video game music concerts. It was a remarkable event that made great progress in breaking

18338-412: The hitherto remunerative work for regional choral societies dwindled to almost nothing. When peace resumed many of the former players were unavailable. A third of the orchestra's pre-war members were in the armed forces, and rebuilding was urgently needed. The orchestra was willing to allow the ambitious conductor Albert Coates to put himself forward as chief conductor. Coates had three attractions for

18511-557: The inadequate rehearsal facilities endured by London orchestras. Bernstein remained associated with the LSO for the rest of his life, and was its president from 1987 to 1990. Mindful of the enormous success of the Philharmonia Chorus , founded in 1957 by Legge to work with his Philharmonia Orchestra, the LSO decided to establish its own chorus. The LSO Chorus (later called the London Symphony Chorus)

18684-529: The inaugural Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo , teaching and giving masterclasses for 123 young musicians from 18 countries. Colin Matthews was appointed as the orchestra's associate composer in 1991, and the following year Richard McNicol became LSO Discovery's first music animateur . Gillison secured increased funding from the Arts Council, the City of London Corporation and commercial sponsors, enabling

18857-402: The initial tuning of the orchestra, the speeches given by the MC, and the songs themselves. The album was well received by critics and was termed an "amazing soundtrack" and "probably the best Final Fantasy arranged album ever made" by Robert Bogdanowicz of RPGFan. Liz Maas of RPGFan agreed; although she found there to be a lack of actual innovation overall, she felt the music was "wonderful" and

19030-489: The intermission. Different orchestras were used in each performance; these were the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Sapporo Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic, Kyushu Symphony, and Osaka Symphoniker Orchestra. One of the performances was recorded and released exclusively on DVD to Nobuo Uematsu Fan Club members. Dear Friends – Music from Final Fantasy

19203-429: The main Final Fantasy series, and do not include music from the multiple spin-off series with the exception of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children , the 2005 animated film sequel to Final Fantasy VII . 20020220 – Music from Final Fantasy was the first official concert devoted to music from across the Final Fantasy series. A previous concert, Final Fantasy Symphonic Suite , had been performed on May 20, 1989, for

19376-501: The main concert series, A New World is an international series, with over 100 performances worldwide. An album of music from the concert was made available as a digital album to purchase on Bandcamp on August 22, 2014. Final Symphony is an official concert tour featuring music from Final Fantasy VI , VII , and X , produced and directed by Thomas Böcker. The world premiere took place May 11, 2013 in Wuppertal , Germany where it

19549-536: The milestones on the orchestra's path to recovery were the premieres of Walton 's Belshazzar's Feast (1930) and First Symphony (1934), showing the orchestra "capable of rising to the challenge of the most demanding contemporary scores" (Morrison). The foundation of the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934 was another good thing for the LSO, as its players made up nearly the entirety of the festival orchestra. An important additional source of income for

19722-462: The modifications to the arrangements between the original concert and the Tokyo concert, especially the slight increase in tempo. Audun Sorlie of Original Sound Version also praised the changes, not only in the tempo but also in the arrangements, noting the more integrated piano in the Kingdom Hearts suite and the more impressive brass section in the opening fanfare. He also noted that, unlike

19895-412: The most conspicuous of Davis's projects with the orchestra was the LSO's most ambitious festival thus far, the "Berlioz Odyssey", in which all Berlioz's major works were given. The festival continued into 2000. Many of the performances, including Les Troyens , were recorded for the orchestra's new CD label, LSO Live, launched in 2000. Les Troyens won two Grammy awards. In 2003, with backing from

20068-509: The music from the Chrono games. This was Wanamo's first time arranging video game music. On March 9, 2009, it was also announced that Valtonen had additionally been commissioned to compose an original fanfare to be played at the start of the concert, and with a video preview of his composition was released. The arrangements in the concert were structured as suites, dubbed "Fantasies", with multiple songs from each game series positioned and arranged together to tell melodic stories rather than using

20241-525: The name a Final Fantasy V piece that is played at the concerts, was chosen by Uematsu to represent his appreciation for the support given to him by fans of his music and of the Final Fantasy series. The series was originally conceived as a single concert to be held on May 10, 2004, performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya . The concert was hosted by James Arnold Taylor ,

20414-505: The official website. The album received mixed reviews from critics, with Patrick Gann of RPGFan saying that "the recording quality is decent, the performance is standard, and it's all the classic Final Fantasy you've come to love", but expressing disappointment that the album contained only one new arrangement, with the other songs composed of arrangements originally made for other concerts. Andre of Square Enix Music Online, however, despite also wishing for more original arrangements, felt that

20587-561: The orchestra a particular authority in the Austro-German classics as well as a commitment to the avant-garde. From the orchestra's point of view there were disadvantages to his appointment. His relationship with the players was distant and he was unable to impose discipline on the orchestra in rehearsals. He insisted on conducting without a score, and many times this led to barely-avoided disaster in concerts. Abbado had considerable international prestige, but this too had its downside for

20760-629: The orchestra and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), resident at the Barbican Theatre, came under threat from a new managing director of the Barbican Centre, Baroness O'Cathain , an economist with no cultural background. O'Cathain, described by Morrison as "a Thatcherite free marketeer", dismissed the LSO and RSC as "arty-farty types", and opposed public subsidy. Such was the press and public reaction that she

20933-433: The orchestra combined with a small chorus. Kiyotsugu Amano performed guitar accompaniment for "Dear Friends" ( Final Fantasy V ) and "Vamo' Alla Flamenco" ( Final Fantasy IX ). An album based on a live recording of the concert was released on May 9, 2002, by DigiCube , and was subsequently re-released on July 22, 2004, by Square Enix. The album spans 25 tracks over two discs and covers a duration of 1:47:27, and includes

21106-645: The orchestra established the LSO Chorus , originally a mix of professional and amateur singers, later a wholly amateur ensemble. As a self-governing body, the orchestra selects the conductors with whom it works. At some stages in its history it has dispensed with a principal conductor and worked only with guests. Among conductors with whom it is most associated are, in its early days, Hans Richter , Sir Edward Elgar , and Sir Thomas Beecham , and in more recent decades Pierre Monteux , André Previn , Claudio Abbado , Sir Colin Davis , and Valery Gergiev . Since 1982,

21279-444: The orchestra in 20020220 had been. Uematsu guest conducted the encores for each performance; he used a borrowed baton that he had snapped and taped together. Tour de Japon featured fewer non-orchestra performances than 20020220 ; "Opera "Maria & Draco"" featured the singing of Etsuyo Ota, Tomoaki Watanabe, and Tetsuya Odagawa, while Manami Kiyota and Yuji Hasegawa performed songs from Final Fantasy Song Book: Mahoroba during

21452-472: The orchestra mounted "Mahler, Vienna and the Twentieth Century", planned by Abbado, followed the next year by an equally successful Bernstein festival. During 1988 the orchestra adopted an education policy which included the establishment of " LSO Discovery ", offering "people of all ages, from babies through music students to adults, an opportunity to get involved in music-making". The programme

21625-535: The orchestra to set up a system of joint principals, attracting top musicians who could play in the LSO without having to give up their solo or chamber careers. In 1993, the LSO again featured in a British television series, playing in Concerto! with Tilson Thomas and Dudley Moore . Among those appearing were Alicia de Larrocha , James Galway , Steven Isserlis , Barry Douglas , Richard Stoltzman and Kyoko Takezawa . The series received an Emmy Award . In 1994

21798-515: The orchestra visited South Africa to play at the Johannesburg Festival. The players were impressed by the dynamic director of the festival, Ernest Fleischmann , and engaged him as general secretary of the orchestra when the post fell vacant in 1959. He was the LSO's first professional manager; all his predecessors as secretary/managing director had been orchestral players combining the duties with their orchestral playing. To raise

21971-470: The orchestra was the film industry. In March 1935 the LSO recorded Arthur Bliss 's incidental music for Alexander Korda 's film Things to Come . According to the LSO's website the recording took 14 full orchestral sessions and "started a veritable revolution in film production history. ... For the first time, music for the cinema, previously regarded as a lowly art form, captured the attention of classical music scholars and enthusiasts, music critics and

22144-538: The orchestra's "Peter Stuyvesant" concerts, underwritten by the tobacco company of that name, were given in London, Guildford , Bournemouth , Manchester and Swansea . The company also sponsored LSO commissions of new works by British composers. In 1964, the LSO undertook its first world tour, taking in Israel, Turkey, Iran, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and the United States. The following year István Kertész

22317-464: The orchestra's managing director, Peter Hemmings , resigned. For the first time since 1949, the orchestra appointed one of its players to the position. Clive Gillinson , a cellist, took over at a bad time in the LSO's fortunes, and played a central role in turning them round. He negotiated what Morrison calls "a dazzling series of mega-projects, each built around the personal enthusiasm of a 'star' conductor or soloist", producing sell-out houses. In 1985

22490-466: The orchestra, characterised by Morrison as "enormously lucrative but artistically demeaning." Claudio Abbado , principal guest conductor since 1971, succeeded Previn as chief conductor in the orchestra's diamond jubilee year, 1979. In a 1988 study of the LSO in Gramophone magazine James Jolly wrote that Abbado was in many ways the antithesis of Previn in terms of style and repertoire, bringing to

22663-504: The orchestra. Other local singers and choirs joined the orchestra for the remaining pieces, with Etsuyo Ota, Tomoaki Watanabe, and Tetsuya Odagawa performing "Opera "Maria and Draco"" as they had in the Tour de Japon two years prior. A DVD of the performance was released on June 21, 2006, containing a recording of the full concert as well as interviews with Nobuo Uematsu, Arnie Roth, and the vocalists. Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy

22836-591: The orchestra: he was a pupil of Nikisch, he had rich and influential contacts, and he was willing to conduct without fee. He and the orchestra got off to a disastrous start. Their first concert featured the premiere of Elgar's Cello Concerto . Apart from the concerto, which the composer conducted, the rest of the programme was conducted by Coates, who overran his rehearsal time at the expense of Elgar's. Lady Elgar wrote, "that brutal selfish ill-mannered bounder ... that brute Coates went on rehearsing." In The Observer Newman wrote, "There have been rumours about during

23009-427: The organisation independence. At concerts promoted by the LSO the members played without fee, their remuneration coming at the end of each season in a division of the orchestra's profits. This worked well in good years, but any poorly-patronised series left members out of pocket, and reliant on the LSO's engagements to play for provincial choral societies and other managements. The proposal was approved unanimously, and

23182-539: The original Final Fantasy VII . Initially announced as beginning in June 2020, with listed concerts through February 2021, the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic until April 2021, with over 20 concerts planned for Asia, North America, and Europe. One concert, a Tokyo performance on February 13, 2021, was replaced with a livestreamed concert by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. An accompanying album of music Final Fantasy VII Remake Orchestral Arrangement Album

23355-410: The original album, though he felt that the sound quality "lacks some of the dynamics of the original release" in the bass regions. Joe Hammond of Square Enix Music Online found the opposite difference in the sound quality, finding that the deep drum sounds had more impact than in the first album. Stephen Meyerink of RPGFan felt that "the production and mastering on the album is stellar", and was pleased by

23528-606: The original game. The arrangement made use of notable unique techniques in order to replicate the atmosphere found in the original game; for example, the choir was used to create "sound effects" such as floor vibration by foot stomping and simulating distant rain with their voices. The Chrono suite featured ten songs from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross . The suite featured a "crossing" of melodies, in which multiple melodies would be layered on top of one another, resulting in different well-known themes performed simultaneously in harmony. The Final Fantasy suite contained eight songs from

23701-470: The original performance and album, the recording of live audience did not include any laughter when the chocobo theme interrupted "One Winged Angel" in the Final Fantasy suite. He concluded that the album was worth purchasing even for owners of the first album. London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra ( LSO ) is a British symphony orchestra based in London . Founded in 1904,

23874-548: The other hand, felt that it was a "fantastic album" and a "must have". Tour de Japon – Music from Final Fantasy (or Tour de Japon ) was a concert tour featuring music from the Final Fantasy video game series that toured Japan from March 12 to April 16, 2004. The tour was built upon the success of the 20020220 Music from Final Fantasy concert, and featured seven concerts in six cities. The series of concerts featured music composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by Shiro Hamaguchi. The orchestras were conducted by Taizō Takemoto, as

24047-781: The other self-governing London orchestra, the LPO: the LPO played 248 concerts in the 1949–50 season; the LSO 103; the BBC SO 55; the Philharmonia and RPO 32 each. When the Royal Festival Hall opened in 1951 the LSO and LPO engaged in a mutually bruising campaign for sole residency there. Neither was successful, and the Festival Hall became the main London venue for both orchestras and for the RPO and Philharmonia. Krips left

24220-623: The performances by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, both composers talked about their work on the series on stage of the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan concert venue. Final Symphony Tokyo was the first video game music concert ever to be greeted with standing ovations in Japan. Additional performances took place in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, the United States, New Zealand, China, Austria and Australia. The tour continues to date. The pieces were arranged by Masashi Hamauzu , one of

24393-467: The players sailed safely on the Baltic . The tour was arduous, but a triumph. The New York Press said, "The great British band played with a vigor, force and temperamental impetuousness that almost lifted the listener out of his seat." The New York Times praised all departments of the orchestra, though, like The Manchester Guardian , it found the strings "brilliant rather than mellow". The paper had

24566-489: The post for 11 years – at 2013 the longest tenure of the post to date. By the Previn era the LSO was being described as the finest of the London orchestras. A reviewer of an Elgar recording by one of the other orchestras remarked, "these symphonies really deserve the LSO at its peak." The implication that the LSO was not always at its peak was illustrated when Sir Adrian Boult, who was recording Elgar and Vaughan Williams with

24739-494: The profile and prestige of the orchestra, Fleischman strove to attract top soloists and conductors to work with the LSO. After Krips's resignation the orchestra had worked with a few leading conductors, including Klemperer, Stokowski, Jascha Horenstein and Pierre Monteux , but also with many less eminent ones. Fleischmann later said, "It wasn't difficult to change the list of conductors that the orchestra worked with, because one couldn't do much worse, really". A rising conductor of

24912-521: The quality was superb and that the album as a whole was "one of life and energy". Chris of Square Enix Music Online also praised the album, finding similar features and flaws. notes Since 2007, over 200 concerts have been held in the Distant Worlds series, some consisting of multiple performances. Countries visited have included Japan, the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Sweden, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and

25085-494: The rebels and made the Queen's Hall available to them. He and Wood attended the LSO's first concert, on 9 June 1904. The programme consisted of the prelude to Die Meistersinger , music by Bach , Mozart , Elgar and Liszt , and finally Beethoven's Fifth Symphony . In a favourable review in The Times , J A Fuller Maitland noted that 49 members of the new orchestra were rebels against Newman's no-deputy rule, 32 had left

25258-868: The same year the LSO took over from the Berlin Philharmonic as the resident orchestra at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, adding to a roster of international residences at venues including the Lincoln Center in New York, the Salle Pleyel in Paris and the Daytona Beach International Festival in Florida. In 2010 the LSO visited Poland and Abu Dhabi for the first time and made its first return to India since

25431-486: The second rehearsal. Not being able to play at the concert, C sends D, whom you would have paid five shillings to stay away." There was much competition for good orchestral players, with well-paid engagements offered by more than fifty music halls , by pit bands in West End musical comedies , and by grand hotels and restaurants which maintained orchestras. In 1904, the manager of the Queen's Hall, Robert Newman and

25604-567: The series. Like the Dear Friends concerts, giant video screens display video and art stills in order to accompany the music being played. During the tour, additional songs have been added to the setlist in 2009 and these include "Ronfaure" from Final Fantasy XI , added on April 11, "Man With A Machine Gun" from Final Fantasy VIII , added on June 18, "Main Theme of FFVII", added October 8, and "Dancing Mad" from Final Fantasy VI and "J-E-N-O-V-A" from Final Fantasy VII , added on December 12. After

25777-448: The source material if the opportunity arose in the future; this led to the creation of the Final Symphony concert in 2013. The composers also voiced their desire to bring the concert to Japan. The Symphonic Fantasies album garnered universal praise upon its release. Patrick Gann of RPGFan said that it was "the best game music arranged album of 2010. It may be the best in years, with the only things rivaling it being other recordings from

25950-513: The time was not named and was only known to be featured in the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Advent Children . The encore piece, "One-Winged Angel", saw the orchestra joined by a full choir, the Los Angeles Master Chorale . The concert was termed "a complete success" by IGN , who commented that they "walked away impressed with the performance, the presentation, and the timelessness of Uematsu's compositions". The response to

26123-427: The war intact, the latter, abandoned by Beecham, as a self-governing body. All three were quickly overshadowed by two new orchestras: Walter Legge 's Philharmonia and Beecham's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra . To survive, the LSO played in hundreds of concerts of popular classics under undistinguished conductors. By 1948 the orchestra was anxious to resume promoting its own concert series. The players decided to accept

26296-464: The week of inadequate rehearsal. Whatever the explanation, the sad fact remains that never, in all probability, has so great an orchestra made so lamentable an exhibition of itself." Coates remained as chief conductor for two seasons, and after the initial debacle is credited by Morrison with "breathing life and energy into the orchestra". After Coates left, the orchestra reverted to its preferred practice of engaging numerous guest conductors rather than

26469-548: Was a concert in the Distant Worlds series conducted by Arnie Roth featuring music composed by Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu from the Final Fantasy series. The concert was performed on November 6 and 7, 2010 in Tokyo, Japan, by the Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra with guest performances from vocalists Frances Maya and Susan Calloway, among others. The concert premiered several arrangements from Final Fantasy XIII and XIV , which were then added to

26642-405: Was a concert tour featuring music from the Final Fantasy video game series that toured the United States from 2004 to 2005. The concert was the first Final Fantasy concert tour for North America and featured record sales and sold-out concerts. The series of concerts featured music composed by Nobuo Uematsu from the later releases of the series. The name of the concert series, in addition to being

26815-486: Was a very experimental attempt," resulting in "free and unbound expression". Yasunori Mitsuda expressed that he was "really amazed by its fantastic quality", and Nobuo Uematsu said that it was "an exceptionally well-produced concert compared to most game concerts." Uematsu was very taken with the unique arrangements of the other sections of the concert, especially the Mana portion, that he asked Böcker to take more liberties with

26988-420: Was abandoned in the post-war era as a condition of receiving public subsidy for the first time. In the 1950s the orchestra debated whether to concentrate on film work at the expense of symphony concerts; many senior players left when the majority of players rejected the idea. By the 1960s the LSO had recovered its leading position, which it has retained subsequently. In 1966, to perform alongside it in choral works,

27161-435: Was accompanied by Japanese folk singer Ritsuki Nakano , known as "RIKKI", who sang the track in the original game. Similarly, "Melodies of Life" from Final Fantasy IX was performed by Emiko Shiratori , the original performer for the song in that game's soundtrack. "At Zanarkand" and "Yuna's Decision", both from Final Fantasy X , were solo piano pieces performed by Aki Kuroda, while "Liberi Fatali" and "One-Winged Angel" saw

27334-657: Was appointed principal conductor. Negotiations with the Corporation of the City of London with a view to establishing the LSO as the resident orchestra of the planned Barbican Centre began in the same year. In 1966 Leonard Bernstein conducted the LSO for the first time, in Mahler 's Symphony of a Thousand at the Royal Albert Hall . This was another coup for Fleischmann, who had to overcome Bernstein's scorn for

27507-700: Was broadcast live on the WDR4 radio station, as well as through an online video stream, enabling a worldwide audience to watch the concert. It was the first fully live-streamed video game concert. Three years after the original performance, on September 14, 2011, during the Tokyo Game Show , Square Enix Japan announced on their website that the Symphonic Fantasies concert would be performed in Tokyo on January 7 and 8, 2012. They also announced that Benyamin Nuss, Rony Barrak, Jonne Valtonen, Roger Wanamo and Thomas Böcker would be in attendance. Böcker returned to produce

27680-586: Was created by a variety of composers including Masashi Hamauzu , Naoshi Mizuta , Hitoshi Sakimoto , and Kumi Tanioka , as well as many others. Music from the franchise has been performed numerous times in concert tours and other live performances such as the Orchestral Game Music Concerts , Symphonic Game Music Concerts , and the Play! A Video Game Symphony and the Video Games Live concert tours, as well as forming

27853-617: Was followed with the More Friends: Music from Final Fantasy concert on May 16, 2005. Voices – Music from Final Fantasy was a concert held in Yokohama , Japan on February 18, 2006, focusing on vocal pieces from the series. The longest running Final Fantasy concert series so far is the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy concert tour, which began in 2007 and continues to date around the world. The latest officially licensed concerts are Final Symphony and Final Symphony II . All of these concerts have played only music from

28026-416: Was formed in 1966 under John Alldis as chorus master. Its early years were difficult; Kertész did not get on with Alldis, and there were difficulties within the chorus. Most of its members were amateurs, but at first, they were reinforced by a small number of professionals. This led to disputes over the balance between amateurs and professionals. There was a brief crisis, after which the professional element

28199-476: Was good for the box office: cycles of Beethoven symphonies and concertos (the latter featuring Wilhelm Kempff in one season and Claudio Arrau in another) helped restore the orchestra's finances as well as its musical standards. With Krips and others the orchestra recorded extensively for the Decca Record Company during the early 1950s. The orchestra's workload in these years was second only to

28372-555: Was highly praised; as to the orchestra, Ernest Newman wrote in The Manchester Guardian , "Its brass and its wood-wind were seen to be of exceptional quality, but the strings, fine as they are, have not the substance nor the colour of the Hallé strings." The following year the LSO played outside Britain for the first time, giving concerts in Paris, conducted by Edouard Colonne , Sir Charles Stanford and André Messager . Richard Morrison , in his centenary study of

28545-437: Was obliged to seek a vote of confidence from the LSO and RSC; failing to gain it, she resigned, and was succeeded by John Tusa , whom Morrison calls "steeped in culture." The danger that the concert hall would become a conference centre was averted. In 1995, Sir Colin Davis was appointed chief conductor. He had first conducted the LSO in 1959, and had been widely expected to succeed Monteux as principal conductor in 1964. Among

28718-469: Was originally planned for October 2020, and similarly delayed. In addition to concerts specifically devoted to the Final Fantasy series, music from the games has been performed at many other concerts and concert series. Music from the series was played in the first four concerts of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra 's Orchestral Game Music Concerts series from 1991 to 1994, and each concert has been released on an album. Outside Japan, Final Fantasy music

28891-583: Was originally scheduled to be performed on September 12, 2009 in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall in Cologne , but once the tickets were sold out, a second performance was added for September 11, 2009 at the König Pilsener Arena in Oberhausen . Ticket sales for the initial concert began on January 17, and half of them were sold within a week, with the remainder sold by April 2, 2009. The concert

29064-487: Was performed on October 8, 2016, in Cologne, Germany. The arrangements were made by composer Masashi Hamauzu and pianist Benyamin Nuss from the original tracks by Hamauzu and Uematsu. The concert was performed by the WDR Orchestra, with piano by Nuss, and featured narration of events from the game by comedian and game tester Maxi Gstettenbauer. Dreams of Zanarkand was the first European game music concert dedicated to

29237-638: Was performed twice by the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra at the venue Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal. A performance by the London Symphony Orchestra took place on May 30 in London at the Barbican Centre . It marked the first live performance of video game music by the London Symphony Orchestra, making a historical moment for the Final Fantasy franchise and video game music in general. At Final Symphony in Wuppertal and London, Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu were in attendance. At

29410-585: Was played for the first time at the Symphonic Game Music Concert series, a series of annual German video game music concerts starting in August 2003. It has also been played live by the Australian Eminence Symphony Orchestra since October 2003, an independent symphony orchestra specializing in classical music from video games and in the Video Games Live concert tour from 2005 to date as well as

29583-599: Was preceded by a Meet and Greet session that included the original composers as well as the arrangement team and guest artists for the show. The concerts were performed by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and WDR Radio Choir Cologne, conducted by Arnie Roth . Before each suite, the moderator would introduce the upcoming musical piece, as well as introduce the composer in attendance. Each "Fantasy" lasted for more than 15 minutes each. The Kingdom Hearts suite featured solo pianist Benyamin Nuss . For

29756-531: Was re-released as a lossless digital album on Bandcamp for streaming and download on January 1, 2021. The initial event received widespread critical acclaim, with much praise given to the focused presentation, deeply developed arrangements and evolution of the concept. Audun Sorlie of Original Sound Version stated that the concert "exceeded all expectations" and further added that the event was "absolutely amazing". Chris Greening of Square Enix Music Online concluded in his report that " Symphonic Fantasies ranks among

29929-425: Was removed, and the LSO chorus became, and remains, an outstanding amateur chorus. By 1967 many in the LSO felt that Fleischmann was seeking to exert too much influence on the affairs of the orchestra, and he resigned. Kertész, too, was dispensed with when he sought control of all artistic matters; his contract was not renewed when it expired in 1968. His successor as principal conductor was André Previn , who held

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