20 Jan 07 Passion by Eminence Saturday, 23 December 2006 at the Victoria Concert Hall By Ray No, it’s not a new fragrance from the beauty cartels: Passion is the latest concert by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, and features popular videogame and anime music, played by some of the most talented classically-trained musicians alive. The performance at the Victoria Concert Hall also marked the first time Eminence has played outside of Australia. It is a very bold thing to do. As founder Hiroaki Yura explains on stage, Eminence was started because he wanted a younger audience to appreciate classical music. Being an avid gamer himself, he decided to include music from videogames and anime into the repertoire, and ever since their debut concert in 2003 that’s what they have been doing. And so Passion includes music by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, Radiant Silvergun), Joe Hisaishi (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away), Koji Kondo (Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears). Mere mention of those names should have compelled gamers to rush to Gatecrash’s website and book their tickets quick, but the true stars of the show are the musicians themselves. The lead musicians are talented young prodigies, and it shows. When the amazing Ayako Ishikawa plays Dance Macabre, she does so with such exuberance your own heart quickens. As she plays a duet from Laputa, Castle in the Sky with pianist Natalia Raspopova, you wish you could replace the movie version with theirs, her rich violin far surpassing the empty, reedy sound of the original. Hiroaki Yura and Zane Banks perform a beautiful rendition of Radical Dreamers together, and Hiroaki’s sweet harmonies almost equal the original vocalist’s. Together, too, the musicians shine. Once, they entered the stage wearing Santa hats, and played a jolly medley from Super Mario Brothers. It was the one song everyone recognized, and the audience would chuckle appreciatively whenever they heard a familiar tune. And when the ensemble played the haunting Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World, I could feel goose bumps running up my arms. Surprisingly, the three classical pieces sneakily weaved into the programme were more enjoyable than the videogame music. They were complex, feisty and fun to listen to. The musicians obviously enjoyed showing off as they played them, though Hiroaki did make a tiny mistake while playing Hungarian Dance. Despite their individual skill, there were some shortcomings in the performance. Occasionally, the musicians would be subtly out of sync with each other. It was particularly noticeable in Time’s Scar: sometimes the percussionist would play a tiny bit faster, and then correct himself. Other times, it would be the pianist, or the guitarist, or even the violinists. A driving, rousing piece like that is ruined when the rhythm is broken so. Yasunori Mitsuda (left) and Hitoshi Sakimoto (right). That being said, the audience did not seem to mind, for their response was instantaneous, loud and approving. A special highlight of the show was having Yasunori Mitsuda himself, one of the aforementioned videogame music composers, play his bouzouki as a special guest performer. I am a big fan of his work, and it was thrilling to have him there. He played accompaniment, rather than solo, but the unique sounds of the ancient Irish instrument complimented the more contemporary instruments nicely. Unfortunately, unlike the Sydney version of the concert, the Singaporean version did not feature Hitoshi Sakimoto, and his absence was sorely missed. Sadly, there were two blemishes on an otherwise magical concert. One, the host had mysteriously been replaced at the last minute. Though the replacement host did a passable job under extenuating circumstances, he did once try to crack a joke that came off as quite rude. The other blemish was the badly bungled post-concert autograph session. A huge number of fans queued up to meet Yasunori Mitsuda, and in the cramped space just outside the stalls of the Victoria Concert Hall, chaos ensued. There was no marked queue. Nobody was told how many items they could sign until midway through the session. And as the final insult, people who had queued up for almost an hour were shooed away by the VCH staff because they wanted to close the premises down for the night. Yet despite the flaws, the concert was a fantastic experience. The VCH was quite full, a clear indicator that this sort of thing can and will attract people. During many of the livelier pieces, I saw youngsters nodding their heads in time with the music – truer praise you cannot find. The enthusiasm was such that the audience demanded an encore, and Eminence obliged. Perhaps they will indulge us again, and show Singaporean listeners how beautiful a videogame and anime music concert can be.