Symphonic Fantasies to bring live Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Chrono & Mana music to London

Merregnon Studios is to partner with the world famous London Symphony Orchestra once again to bring the music of classic Square Enix titles to London in a beautifully orchestrated performance in 2016 with the British debut of Final Symphonies, a reprise of one of the concerts that really began to put the production company on the map before it moved on to the wildly successful Final Symphony concert series.

The concert will take place on October 6th 2016, and will feature four lengthy wide-ranging arrangements from the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series' in general, plus two further equally detailed arrangements of the score from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross and Secret of Mana - and in performing music from these other classic Square Enix RPGs, Symphonic Fantasies rather sets itself apart. Its arrangements of the Chrono and Mana music are, for our money, particularly excellent. If you want to hear what it's like, a recording of the Tokyo performance from years ago is available now on iTunes.

"It’s so exciting to be back at the Barbican with the LSO for another epic video game concert performance," said Symphonic Fantasies London producer, Thomas Böcker. "Following the success of Final Symphony I & II and Symphonic Legends London, this venue feels like a second home to me and I’m so pleased to finally be able to bring Symphonic Fantasies to a UK audience. I’m incredibly proud of the work my team put into these arrangements and I’m sure you will be blown away when you hear the LSO perform them live."

The day will be made a little extra special still by the appearance of Yoko Shimomura, who will give a ticketed pre-concert talk as Nobuo Uematsu did at Final Symphony II this year, detailing her career in video games and what it's like to have such a storied history in the ever-growing world of video game music.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow via the London Symphony Orchestra's official website, starting at £30 and going all the way up to £65. 

In an interview with RPG Site, Symphonic Fantasies concert producer described video game music as "the best chance orchestras have had in years" to find a new audience. See that, and more from him, in our lengthy chat with him.