The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony.

Last night I attended The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony at the Pantages Theater, and it was spectacular. It was a concert that will be put on in three cities, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and London. It featured the Orchestra Nova from San Diego, under the baton of Eimear Noone.

My brother had found out about this concert in passing one day while perusing the internet on his iPhone. And we knew we had to go. "The Legend of Zelda" has been a very important part of my life, and one of the few video games I truly and thoroughly love. It was also the first game I ever owned for the NES. Being the only concert of the symphony in the US it was a bit tough to get tickets and we did end up paying a lot to go. But it was worth it.

We took the LA Metro to the theater and on board we saw a met a number of people who where going to the concert. It was easy to tell us gamers dress up in unique ways. We met people who came from as far as Pennsylvania and Seattle to attend. Upon leaving the Station we got our first view of the theater decked out in banners showing Link's history over the 25 years. Inside the lobby of the theater was the biggest crowd of people I have ever seen at the Pantages, it was like a Convention, there where Cosplayers and lines for the swag. As well as a number of Wii Systems where people where playing a preview of Skyward Sword. I didn't play the preview but I thought it was neat that Nintendo gave Zelda's biggest fans the opportunity to try out the game.

The Theater was packed and the stage was flanked by Hylian standards. And there was a screen where clips from the games and I-mag of the Orchestra was shown. There was a brief introduction by Eiji Aonuma (producer of the Zelda series for 13 years), He joked that it should have been Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Zelda and Mario), but "he's gotten old now and can't come to America any more" in fact there was an imortant project he couldn't leave. Then Ms. Doone was introduced and the concert began with the majestic "Hyrule Castle Theme".

Eimear Doone acted as our MC for the evening and seemed to enjoy and relish it the whole time. introducing each piece of music. Highlights for me where the "Ocarina Melody suite" which served as introduction to all of the sections of the Orchestra, with each taking a melody. The "Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Medley" which comprised of action themes, a great cheer was had at the beginning of the theme of the dark world from a Link to the past. Another highlight was the "Shorts Suite" a collection of pieces from the early games that where not quite long enough to make into movements of their own, and where presented as a geography of Hyrule. It included many of my favourite bits from the Original and SNES Zelda games including the dungeon themes. It was probably my favourite bit of the night. The two harpists got the spotlight in the "Great Fairy Fountain's Theme", and the evening's main program concluded with an epic "Main Theme Medly".

For the encore we where given the treat of composer Koji Kondo's piano performance, of the grandmother's theme from "Windwaker". Mr Kondo then gave us his heartfelt thanks for the love we have given his work I bet that he never thought he'd be doing something like this 25 years ago as he worked on the synthesizers in his studio. Then finally Mr. Aonuma returned to plug skyward sword and as and introduced the final piece, the "Main Theme From Skyward Sword". Then the evening was done.

The Concert was a great night and the music of the series sounded amazing as interpreted by the orchestra. It was grand, grander than I ever would have thought video games would ever be treated all those years ago when eight year old me had his first adventures with Link. But it is interesting that the memories that stirred in this grand performance where all intimate. The first time I ever put in that gold cartridge and saw the waterfall, playing the game with my brother and grade school freinds, those afternoons at my grandmother's including that day where I defeated Gannon for the first and only time, "Link to the Past" with my friends in Boy Scouts, and most recently my chosen in flight entertainment on the DS. I was amazed at how many points in my life where touched by these silly games. And how all of this flooded back during the performance. Which I guess makes the games not so silly after all.