A new experience of piano collection
Ming | Australia | 05/03/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I have the piano collection for FFVIII, FFX and just added FFX-2 to my collections. This is a different piano collection from what I owned. Most of the tracks focus on the parts raterh than melody so it's bit hard to recognize the soundtracks. However, the arrangement and the performance is excellent, full of emotions. These are masterpieces of FF music industry.
There are 12 tracks of which there are 2 version of eternity which are fabulous. Never know that this sond can be arranged in these ways.
The musician involved are Noriko Matsueda, Takahito Eguchi, Hiroko Kokubu, Masahiro Sayama and Febian Reza Pane.
Tracklist:
01 - Seal of the Wind ~The Three Trails~
02 - Yuna's Ballad
03 - Paine's Theme
04 - Creature Creation
05 - The Calm Lands
06 - Zanarkand Ruins
07 - Akagi Team
08 - Nightmare in the Den
09 - Demise
10 - 1000 Words
11 - Epilogue ~Reunion~
12 - Eternity ~Memories of Lightwaves~
This collection is different and you would expect surprises. :)
"
A pleasant surprise!
Andrew | Cleveland, MS United States | 06/15/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album is remarkable not only in performance, but also in the quality of arrangement from such a risqué game album. At the first wind of this recording, most of the gaming community was stunned. The soundtrack from which this collection derives is so unpleasing that it might take several aspirin to finish it. The tracks from the Original Soundtrack were so non-musical, that we were left in disbelief that piano arrangements could be made. However, we were proved wrong upon hearing this masterpiece of piano arrangement.These arrangements vary from calm and flowing music to music so loud that piano strings are forced to break. On the seventh piece, "Party", the end climax is really amplified by the breaking of an A string in the piano.This album has some jazz improvisation and some fully structured piano arrangement. These styles complement each other beautifully in this surprisingly listenable album."
Fresh and Beautiful.
Elizabeth | Australia | 10/05/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I wasn't sure how this album would fair after the departure of Nobuo Uematsu (with such great work as the iconic "One Winged Angel" or the underrated "Dancing Mad"), however, after thoroughly listening to this album I can't say I have missed him one bit. "Final Fantasy X-2: PIano Collection" is without a doubt my favourite in the series and with a combination of great performances, great arrangements and great compositions it almost reaches perfection.
"Windcrest~The Three Trails~" (the opening track) is my favourite of the album and is perfect; in a ternary form the piece begins in a reflective mood with a constant stream of quavers and harmony that changes from the right to left hand. The quavers continue in section B in the left hand while the right hand plays triplets; the duple/compound rhythms flow together so well and build to a very expressive chordal climax which breaks into half of section A again to end. What I also love about this track is it is performed so expressively and flawlessly it seems easy. Of course I was surprised when I picked up the sheet music and discovered that it was in A Flat Minor. It took a bit of practice to get the polyrhythms in the middle section right.
Some of my other favourite tracks include the Jazz arrangements; "Paine's Theme" is this sort of contemporary/Jazz fusion and "Creature Creation" - wow; the 'spider-like' (at least that's the feeling I get when I listen/play it) leaps by the left hand is impressive and the whole piece sounds improvised (in a good way). I don't want to spoil this track, it's a lot of fun! "Party" is another track which I guess could best be described as 'Theme and variation' and is my second favourite track.
"Nightmare at a Cave" is a short but a dissonant and virtuosic piece. "1000 Words" is a beautiful arrangement of the hit song; "Epilogue ~Reunion~" although slightly cliché at times peaks in its polyrhythms which work just as well as Windcrest, if not better.
Eternity ~Memory of Lightwaves~ is 6 and a half minutes of emotional brilliance.
The only disappointing thing about the album is the lack of a grandiose, powerful battle theme. "Demise" is underwhelming to say the least and just falls to the likes of the "Final Fantasy VII Battle Theme", "One Winged Angel" and the "Final Fantasy IX Battle theme".
It's still a must buy for any FF fan, or anyone who loves piano arrangements in general really, to be honest I've never played a FF game in my life; but adore the music!"