Final Fantasy at the Royal Albert Hall

People not heavily invested in video games may not realise the reverence and devotion shown to the music from a select few series by the fans. One such, arguably the best, example is the music from Final Fantasy, which is almost entirely created by Nobuo Uematsu.

Part of the evidence I would present to support this statement (ignoring all the Asian performances and huge back-catalogue of recorded music) is this tour, now in its seventh year and quickly approaching its one-hundredth concert. Led by the Grammy award winning conductor Arnie Roth and with new orchestrations overseen by Uematsu, it travels across the globe to such lavish venues as the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Albert Hall (RAH) and the Stockholm Opera House, and introduces world class orchestras (the Royal Philharmonic last night!) to what I expect many in the classical world would scoff at. However, there is an interesting fact to be noted here: listeners of ClassicFM (and what better measuring stick is there?) voted Uematsu’s body of work as their third favourite and indeed the piece ‘Aerith’s Theme’ from Final Fantasy VII was the first video game composition played on ClassicFM. This is the third time Distant Worlds has come to England, each time to the RAH and coincidentally the third time I made the pilgrimage. It is also the third time it has completely sold out the RAH, this time in under two hours. Perhaps that is unsurprising given the predisposition to obsession we gamers all seem to have about the things we enjoy. To give some context as to why people are so fond of this music, listen to orchestral variants of ‘Dear Friends’ from V, ‘Terra’s Theme’ from VI, ‘Don’t Be Afraid’ from VIII and ‘Not Alone’ from_ IX_.

After that brief history lesson, the review. This performance was exceptional, and I’m not saying that as some addled fan, foaming at the mouth, who would say the same if the orchestra had come on stage in Final Fantasy T-shirts, shat, and then left. Indeed the second performance was sub-par compared to the first and third, in terms of the selection of pieces and the quality of the orchestra, presentation and sound. However for their latest effort, that all seemed to have been rectified. The orchestra was true to the original orchestral recordings while still adding enough energy and emotion to the pieces to make it a truly live experience. Full motions videos and concept artwork from the games was in perfect sync with the melody and had moved back to the single screen configuration which made the organ available for use in the seminal boss-battle theme, ‘Dancing Mad’. Seriously, hearing that played on Europe’s second largest pipe organ was something to behold. There was a wall of pulsating sound towards the end of the organ solo where the heavy chromatic blocks slowly resolve into harmony which shook the hall.

And the surprises came thick and fast. Breaking all tradition the first piece played was ‘The Hymn of the Fayth’ from X rather than ‘Prelude’, an opener that features in every game somewhere. This rendition (new to the European tour) was beautiful in its simplicity. The London Voices Choir performed the complex intonation flawlessly and it was accented by gentle gamelan bells and a simple string line. What’s more, and I believe this to be one of the reasons video game music has such a following, when you know what the piece represents in the game (in this case, the sacrifice of the self for those you love, and compromise between a foul-pragmatism and a seemingly unreachable ideal) your emotional response is heightened, especially when similar memories are invoked in everyone you can see. The concert pianist who featured as the first soloist in previous incarnations to play the battle theme ‘Those Who Fight Further’ from VII was replaced by a classical guitarist who performed a beautiful rendition of ‘Dear Friends’ from V and a lively ‘Vamo’ alla Flamenco’ from IX. It is interesting to note that ‘One Winged Angel’ was hastily dispatched immediately after the opener, losing its previous encore spot. I take this as vindication of my long held and unpopular opinion that it simply doesn’t work in an orchestral setting.

I don’t wish to continue simply recalling a list of pieces that were played and what I thought of them, so I shall briefly mention the highlights. For me these were: ‘Hymn of the Fayth’, the classical guitar soloist playing ‘Dear Friends’ the character theme medley from VI (including Terra and Kefka), the brand new arrangement of ‘Festival of the Hunt’ from IX, the battle medley, including most importantly ‘Battle on the Big Bridge’ from IV, and finally seeing Nobuo himself on stage playing ‘Dark World’ with the opening credits of VI rolling behind him on the big screen.

All of this praise is not to say the concert was without its problems. First and foremost in my mind is the single appearance of vocalist Susan Calloway, the voice behind the soundtracks to the two online games in the series, XI and XIV. Not only did she appear only once during the concert, but she sang ‘Answers’ from XIV, by far the weakest song she features in, especially considering in the past she has performed stunning versions of ‘Eyes on Me’, the love theme from VIII, ‘Suteki da Na’, the love theme from X and ‘Memoro De La Stono’ (especially good), the main theme of XI from which the name Distant Worlds comes.

Along with this, the second act was almost entirely music from VI and IX, likely because it was the unofficial 20th birthday of VI and it happens to be one of Nobuo’s favourite scores, along with IX. While I agree wholeheartedly, and I recognise the need to alter the set lists to keep the experience fresh, the over-focus meant we only got one piece, namely ‘Don’t be Afraid’, from VIII, and nothing at all from the first four games. While I know it’s hard to criticise set lists without seeming like you’re throwing a temper tantrum because you didn’t hear your favourite pieces, to neglect five games in the series almost entirely seems a little fierce. Allow me a sole personal gripe, that even with all this focus on IX (including new pieces to the European tour) they still didn’t play ‘You’re Not Alone’ which is my favourite piece, and as yet isn’t officially available on any of the non-Asian CD releases. Alas.

Distant Worlds will almost certainly come back to England, and I will almost certainly be there again and again until they stop. But I’m happy because I think, even after seven years, the quality still keeps increasing. The variety, the production, the performance and the presentation are all world-class, and as strange as it will no doubt seem to people who have never been affected by a video game, the experiences, morals, stories and characters (and of course music) will stay with me always. Each performance of Distant Worlds reminds me to unashamedly focus only on what I love and nothing else.