The concert, at Davies Symphony Hall, was last Wednesday, March 28. The event was sold out, but nowhere near a full house. There was an unsurprising young crowd, but I did expect to see more stereotypical concert-goers in attendance. Probably more than a third wore Zelda paraphernalia; only a fourth were in appropriate business or semi-formal attire. Most of the audience wore street clothes. A handful were cosplayers.
Upon entering the lobby, we could hear music wafting through the building, barely discernible over the excited buzz of the crowd. But between tracks, an unmistakeable voice shouted "Hey, listen!", causing everyone in the know to look around and ask their friends if they heard that too. In the music hall itself, a large screen dominated the room. An eloquent Hyrulian Crest was projected onto it, immediately invoking nostalgic emotions and anticipation. I sat front and center (in the nosebleeds). But in an intimate venue like Davies, there are really no bad seats.
I do not have the literary skills to appropriately describe the concert. I'll just say it was awesome.
Okay, I'll try a little more detail. The show opened with a beautiful medley of the most recognized music in the Zelda series as it tried to establish the basic story and history. Starting with the very first scene of the first game, we were shown footage of every console game. All the introductory stuff nicely melded together. And I think that's the only time we heard anything from Skyward Sword. The melding and establishment of continuity was furthered in the next piece, which was Kakariko Village from the three games it was featured in. This was nice, but not very remarkable aside from how the music was mixed into each other.
The really good stuff started with the Ballad of the Wind Fish. I mean, there were times 15 years ago when I would turn on my Gameboy just to listen to music from Link's Awakening. What I'm trying to say is that that song was amazing when it was limited to the "beep beep beep" of the Gameboy's technology. So hearing it fully orchestrated is mind-blowing.
And that's really the whole point of this concert. The music in any form invokes memories from the past 25 years. And when listening to any musician play live, you get to hear and feel that raw emotion in a way that the music takes on its own personality. Combine all that into a full symphonic orchestra, and I was primed to swept up into it all. Not to mention the visual aspect, which at varying times either added to or detracted from the experience. It's another sense to appeal to, but on occasion distracted me.
Then started the "movements" of the concert. I use quotation marks, because they were not really movements as much as epic medleys, each from a major console game. The departure from a traditional formula was probably intentional because of the younger crowd that is ignorant of concert etiquette. So if we're going to applaud after each piece, might as well make each movement one continuous segment, right?
Naturally, Ocarina of Time was the first movement. The story that flashed on screen was out of chronological order, but suited to fit the rise and fall of the movement. Especially remarkable was the Great Deku Tree theme, as the cello really resonated with me. I didn't really feel the dramatic points featuring Ganondorf, maybe because I was too far away to feel the bass. Overall, they pretty much covered everything, and extensively went through this game more than any other.
The Wind Waker. Arguably the series' most musically artistic game. They did not disappoint here. How could you with such a rich selection? The music swept back and forth with whimsy and constantly returned to ocean theme, much in line with the game.
After an intermission was the Great Fairy Fountain, a nice, short, one-dimensional piece, but still incredible to hear the live harp action.
Continuing on our tour of console games, the next stop came to Twilight Princess. This game does not have much standout music, but definitely had some of the most dramatic, and this, I think, was fully taken advantage of. Some parts in the middle really felt like I was not just playing the game, but actually fighting. I don't think they deviated from the track that was in the 25th Anniversary CD bundled with Skyward Sword. At this point, however I got tired of watching the final battle scenes with Ganon. It was the third time we saw the guy die that night. But at least he doesn't appear in Skyward Sword, so it shouldn't get too stale.
At this point I started thinking it was a shame that they're not playing anything from A Link to the Past.
