Last night, March 21, Vince and I headed to Detroit for Crystalline Resonance. Since I'm finishing up my book on piano arrangements of video game music, I thought it was both fitting that this would come at the end of that process as well as be critical for me to see. It is the first all piano concert of video game music that I've seen sanctioned by a publisher. According to an interview with the creators of the concert, this is the first piano concert of Final Fantasy sanctioned by Square outside of Japan.
So far online, I've only seen a few reddit threads here, and here, as well as one more extensive review here. For the most part I agree with these reviewers and will share my thoughts below.
The Detroit venue was the Crystal Ballroom in the Masonic Temple. I'd never been before and can see why the name might have especially appealed to the Final Fantasy team when booking the space. Upon entry, the audience was younger than a typical classical piano concert would draw, although there were few truly young people/children. I would guess that 20-40 was the main age group at the concert. Unlike other concerts where a number of people may appear in cosplay, I saw only one white mage. Otherwise, folks were generally dressed casually at the event. By my estimate, there were about 360 seats set up in the room and about 2/3rds of those were full. Soft drinks and water were available for purchase before the concert and could be brought right into the room for consumption during the event.
A table outside the performance space sold only the Final Fantasy Piano Opera CDs. I have the sheet music for those collections and know them well, having assigned some to students before to play and played some of the arrangements myself. This choice makes sense after reading the linked interview above, since the previous all piano concert of Final Fantasy music was to celebrate these Piano Opera arrangements.
I had been extremely disappointed in the early marketing about the event that there was no mention of who would be performing. It struck me very strange that we would be listening to a pianist for two hours and to never learn his name. I was reminded of the early era of video games when the composers and others who worked on the game were not listed in the credits. It's a shame that was how the concert creators chose to handle acknowledging the pianist.
The other major disappointment for me was the piano. There were cameras that alternated between gameplay scenes and showing a closeup of the pianist's hands or face. Visually, the first thing to see on the piano was how dusty and fingerprint smeared the instrument was. It would've only take a couple of minutes to wipe it down. I've done this before recorded performances and don't know why the team didn't take a moment to make this small change. Even worse, the piano was extremely out of tune. The instrument was a small grand and simply sounded old and not well maintained. The space was already a muddy one for a piano concert, and this piano did not allow for much clarity. It had a boomy bass and weak high register. I understand as a pianist that the quality of the piano is at the mercy of the venue.
Also, I wasn't thrilled with the playing. To be clear, two hours is a long time for a pianist to play a solo program and I fully understand that he is in the midst of a multi-city long term tour. But if I had played that inaccurately, I would not have felt positive about the performance. It could be that playing to the click track was difficult to maintain the sync between the video and the live music. It's a shame that there couldn't be more flexibility for the solo performer rather than having to keep everything so timed out. At moments, I wondered if the pianist had gotten lost in the click track as he simply rushed through the ending of some pieces and was concerned about taking too much time. Furthermore, the programing was not thoughtful. Too many of the arrangements sounded, in Vince's words, "as if we were shopping at Nordstrom's." There could've been much more variety between them; more uptempo selections would've helped. As it was, we went from ballad to ballad.
There was no program for the event, so I can't be exactly sure of what I heard. However, the game that a particular piece was announced on the screen. So for instance, the screen may have read "Final Fantasy XV" before a certain piece, but no mention of the name of the piece, the composer of the piece or the arranger. That would have required zero effort to improve and is a curious omission as well for me. If we are truly celebrating the music and composers in the 35th anniversary, why not acknowledge them in some way? Even if pieces change from one performance to the next, it wouldn't take any effort to have added this information on the first screen of each piece.
Here are the pieces that we heard:
FF prelude (montage of the games 1-15)
FF 13 - Prelude
FF 4 - Overworld Theme
FF 11 - no idea the piece
FF 12 - no idea the piece
FF 12 - no idea the piece
FF 8 - no idea the piece
FF 9 - Melodies of Life (from FF Piano Opera)
FF 7 - Aerith's theme
FF 5 - Chocobo Theme
Intermission
FF 7 - Opening into Bombing Mission (from FF Piano Opera)
FF 6 - Dark World Theme (from FF Piano Opera)
FF 11 - no idea the piece
FF 10 - no idea the piece
FF 9 - no idea the piece
FF 15 - Somnus (from Piano Collections)
FF 10 - To Zanarkand
FF 8 - Liberali Fatali (from FF Piano Opera)
FF 14 - no idea the piece
FF 1 - Overworld Theme
FF 14 - no idea the piece
FF 15 - no idea the piece
Overall, I felt this was the weakest performance of video game music I've ever attended. There was no charismatic MC to lead us through the evening. There was never a video from an arranger or composer or producer thanking the audience or explaining any significance of the program. The pianist was never mentioned by name. If I hadn't been there for research purposes, I would've left after the first half. Members of the audience milled in and out, one notably walking in very loud shoes right down the main aisle in the middle of the performance. I wonder if there could've been some way to keep people more captivated. That said, everyone jumped up and gave a standing ovation as well as cheers to the pianist at the end of the program. I think there would've been some ways to make the event more engaging and can only hope that if this kind of program happens in the future that these changes might be incorporated.
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