Symphonic Fantasies
| Orchestral concert tour by Merregnon Studios | |
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| Conductor | Arnie Roth |
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| Composers | Jonne Valtonen, Nobuo Uematsu, Hiroki Kikuta, Yoko Shimomura, Yasunori Mitsuda |
| Arrangers | Jonne Valtonen, Roger Wanamo |
| Venue | Cologne (Germany), Cologne Philharmonic Hall |
| Album recordings |
Symphonic Fantasies (2010) Symphonic Fantasies Tokyo (2012) |
| Start date | September 11, 2009 |
| End date | October 6, 2016 |
| Supporting acts | Benyamin Nuss, Rony Barrak |
| Producer | Thomas Böcker (Merregnon Studios) |
| Merregnon Studios concert chronology | |
| Symphonic Fantasies | |
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| Live album by WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne, WDR Radio Choir Cologne, Rony Barrak, Benyamin Nuss | |
| Released | September 17, 2010 |
| Recorded | September 12, 2009 |
| Genre | Classical, Video game music |
| Length | 1:12:30 |
| Label | Decca (Universal Music) |
| Producer | Thomas Böcker |
Symphonic Fantasies: Music from Square Enix was an award-winning symphonic tribute concert held in Cologne, Germany on September 12, 2009 at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall featuring video game music from Japanese game developer Square Enix. The concert featured symphonic movements based on the Kingdom Hearts series, Secret of Mana, the Chrono series, and the Final Fantasy series. The concert was produced and directed by Thomas Böcker, with arrangements provided by Finnish composer and musician Jonne Valtonen with assistance by Roger Wanamo. Due to overwhelming demand, a second concert was necessitated at the König-Pilsener-Arena in Oberhausen, on September 11, 2009. The concert was performed by the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne and the WDR Radio Choir Cologne under conduction from Arnie Roth, with guest performers Rony Barrak and Benyamin Nuss joining the orchestra. Symphonic Fantasies was broadcast over radio on the WDR4 station and streamed live video online.
In 2012, four new performances were scheduled, taking stage in Tokyo, Stockholm, and a reprise in Cologne. These performances featured slightly modified versions of the original arrangements, and like the original concerts, were sold out. Another performance was held in London in October 2016 by the London Symphony Orchestra. The original concert and the Tokyo concert both sparked the release of an album. These albums, along with the concerts themselves, were heavily praised, both for the quality of the performance and for the quality of Valtonen's arrangements, which overlaid themes from multiple pieces rather than relying on a traditional medley.
Thomas Böcker and then WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne director Winfried Fechner began collaborating on orchestrated video game concerts in 2007, after Fechner had attended the Fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert held in Leipzig. As their ideas and plans materialized, three projects were set in motion to determine the interest of a younger audience in classical music performance and the aptitude of the WDR orchestra in focusing on a new source of compositions. The first project was PROMS: That's Sound, That's Rhythm, held in early 2008, featuring a mixture of classical works and video game music, ranging from works by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Morton Gould as well as arrangements of music from video games such as Shenmue and Castlevania previously featured in the Symphonic Game Music Concerts. The second project, held in August 2008, was a composer specific concert titled Symphonic Shades - Hülsbeck in Concert, focusing entirely on the works of German video game composer Chris Hülsbeck. After the concert, Fechner revealed in an interview the existence of the third project, saying that he and Böcker would be involved in another concert of video game music the following September. The third project was to be a concert of music from one game company, focusing on multiple titles released by the same developer. This company was later confirmed to be Square Enix when Fechner announced Symphonic Fantasies as a video game music concert to take place on September 12, 2009. A website was set up for announcements, interviews and other concert information.
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