The Game On! concert was a fantastic celebration of video game music

There's nothing quite like an orchestra, and listening to talented musicians perform beautifully while surrounded by an equally passionate audience is truly an incredible experience.

What I like about the orchestra is that it's very diverse. There are things that are more traditional, Mahler's Symphony No. 5or pop culture focused, where an orchestra plays live music while you watch a film. In recent months, I've particularly enjoyed the latter, and have been enjoying the original Superman and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl Accompanied by the wonderful Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO).

But it was the TSO's most recent show that was most relevant to my interest. On May 25th and 26th, conductor Andy Blick led the TSO in a highly enjoyable two-hour show featuring symphonic soundtracks from various video games. In total, over a dozen pieces were selected, World of Warcraft (Jason Hayes et al.) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Marcin Przybyłowicz and Mikołaj Stroiński), Destiny 2 (Michael Salvatori et al.) Bioshock (Gary Syman) Ori and the Dark Forest (Gareth Coker).

These performances were accompanied by HD screens showing footage from each game. Not all video game concerts do this, and it can add to the atmosphere, but I generally like B-roll, especially for less familiar titles like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2.

However, there were some strange choices in the type of footage shown. For example: The Witcher 3 (One of my favorite games) told a story by stringing together scenes within the game. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Brian Tyler's Star Wars: Episode I: A New Hope had a purely cinematic trailer, and with an industry already routinely criticized for relying on CGI instead of actual gameplay, it felt especially odd to take that route with a title that's been out for years.

Meanwhile, Brick, who successfully brought to life the first symphonic video game concert in the West, was a likeable host. Between each performance, he gave a little synopsis of each game, which was especially nice for the parents, partners, and other general audience members who might have accompanied the avid gamers in the audience.

It's also commendable that Brick has used his extensive experience as a conductor of a video game orchestra to assemble a solid selection of titles. World of Warcraft and Guild Wars It offers a more traditional orchestral score, The Witcher 3 Offering a more Slavic feel, Black Flag They brought in a small group of enthusiastic singers to perform pirate shanties. Bioshock (which, as Brick pointed out, is never actually completed in-game) And, Portal 2's chiptune-esque beat transforms into a full-blown symphonic medley.

However, I have to say that there were no Japanese game music. Considering Japan's contribution to the media is so large, the total absence of Japanese game music is felt throughout. Final Fantasy and Sonic the hedgehog, It already has its own concert, but it's a shame that not a single Japanese game was featured.

The show's structure was also slightly different. It was originally scheduled to end with Jeremy Soule's main theme, but Skyrimwas a stately, thrilling song, perfect for bringing it all home (even the choir came out, which was absolutely amazing), but the multiple encores ended on a decidedly more somber and less energetic note. Destiny 2 Even if I liked the game (which I don't actually care about), I would still Skyrim performance.

But overall, Brick and TSO put on a very enjoyable show, combining a variety of games with the corresponding music. There aren't many video game events in Canada, so it's great to see a quality show like Game On! here. We hope to see an encore show in the future, showcasing an even wider range of great video game music.

The next Canadian Game On! performance will be in Vancouver next June.

Body Image courtesy of Andy Brick Music LLC.