Home > Season 2 of Zelda Symphony Reviewed
As some of you may know, the Symphony of the Goddesses has officially entered its second season for touring. They kicked off the season in Atlanta, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend. If you want to find out how it was, and what to expect, please read on, but be warned, the review contains a few spoilers.
Right before the show began, there was dead silence...and then someone opened a can of soda with a loud hiss and pop. I'll admit, it was somewhat funny, and a lot of the audience did chuckle a bit at it. The sound carried through the entire centre. It was a bit rude, considering all of the performers and such could hear it too, but it's better than the person opening it during the songs.
First of all, the show kicked off with the one E3 special orchestral piece. I'm not too sure what the name is, but it's the one they played 2 years ago in 2011 to kick off Nintendo's E3 presentation of the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. This is how they started the shows last season, too. After that, everyone introduced themselves with a bit of humor. Actually, the humor. for the overall night was perfect. Not too much to where you expected a joke every time you saw Jeron and Chad come out on stage, but just enough so that it wasn't a surprise when they did.
After the introductions, they launched into two new pieces that were made for the second season. To avoid spoilers, skip over this paragraph. What they did, is a piece of Link's Awakening, which was absolutely magnificent. The sound of the orchestra brought the Game Boy music to life. That, and the humor. continued in the on screen footage. You could tell that the emotions and love of the compositions were there in the music. After Link's Awakening, was Spirit Tracks. While I don't think it was as good as it could have been, it included the whole Sacred Duet with Link, Zelda, and all of the Lokomos. It was beautiful, but I don't feel the instruments were perfect, because a lot of those instruments, you can't re-create with symphony instruments. On the whole, these two new pieces were incredible.
Then, Eimear and the orchestra launched into the regular 4-piece movement. From Ocarina of Time, to Wind Waker (With a real Wind Waker, of course.) After intermission, the orchestra launched into Gerudo Valley. Following that, Jeron came out and teased that since that's usually an encore piece, there would be a few more surprises in store. Then, the orchestra played the Twilight Princess Movement followed by the Link to the Past movement. Both of which were great, and this time, the Link to the Past movement sat a lot better with me, because the music felt like it better matched the game play. Last time I saw it, something about it didn't feel right, and it was probably because I had played the game just a few days before, and I was used to the 16-bit music. Again, everything was incredible, and could not have been better. The brass section was nice and loud compared to last year, but I found that the chorus was a bit too quiet. Especially during the E3 piece.
Following everything, the orchestra played the Majora's Mask encore piece. It did feel different than it did last year, and it was possibly even better. After that, Jeron and Chad introduced two more new pieces. If you don't want it spoiled, skip over the rest of this to the last paragraph. The pieces(fix this sentence) were of Dragon Roost Island, which I feel failed to fully capture the true joy of the main theme, but was still a great piece. Finally, the Skyward Sword mini-movement. It featured the Ballad of the Goddess and Fi's theme. It was almost as if during the performance, Skyward Sword and I put aside our differences, and learned to love each other...until the piece ended. I then decided that I would have to replay the game to give it a slightly more fair evaluation.
The Symphony Orchestra was worth it. If you can go, do it. There is no better way to spend two hours than with music from some of the best games of all time. I do have two complaints with it though. First of all, two hours is too short, and again, the instruments felt out of balance compared to the chorus. I would definitely give it a 9.5/10, because it was better than last year, but it's still not perfect. Hopefully though, the next show will be even better than this one.
About the Author:
Christopher Weil
The 2006 Time Magazine person of the year, born in Toronto, Canada, Christopher developed a passion for gaming at a young age. His favorite franchise has always been The Legend of Zelda, but he can also usually be found playing SimRacing games such as iRacing. He's in university studying mechanical engineering and looking to start his own 3D printing business.
