Comments on: The String Concert of Haruhi Suzumiya – Review

By: Eminence’s A Night in Fantasia Concert | Anime Instrumentality Blog

Eminence’s A Night in Fantasia Concert | Anime Instrumentality Blog — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:16:59 +0000

[...] that because Shiro Hamaguchi is credited as the arranger, that we’ll be getting a piece from The String Concert of Haruhi Suzumiya. That’s not a major surprise since Hiroaki Yura, Eminence’s founder, also performed at [...]

By: zzeroparticle

zzeroparticle — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:36:00 +0000

@qtipbrit
That’s pretty darn comprehensive comment and I think a big part of what makes some of the arrangements on this album better than others is the “harmony in simplicity” that you mentioned. Still not a fan of the “Bolero” though, especially when it’s on its own. With context, I think the piece improves quite a bit.

@ETERNAL
Definitely worth a listen. The arrangements are pretty solid in that there’s a good amount of variety and inspiration tossed around. My beef with TAMusic has always been that their music is bland and this album is anything but.

By: ETERNAL

ETERNAL — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:39:57 +0000

An enjoyable read. I’ve always had a thing for orchestrated, string-heavy music, and while the Haruhi BGM really wasn’t that memorable for me, the samples you have here are great. I’ll look into it.

By: qtipbrit

qtipbrit — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:49:02 +0000

I also gave the album a try, though my expectations were somewhat low after I heard that Hirano had performed as vocal soloist for the orchestrations of her songs (As much as I generally hate her and her voice, I can’t say I felt the same about her songs from Haruhi. p_p). When I began listening to Bouken Desho Desho introduction, I was hoping that I had been wrong to worry over something so trivial.
Of course, I had been right.
Though I admit to not enjoying many choral works outside of Mahler’s symphonies and Beethoven’s 9th, the mix of contemporary singing and the classical orchestra is even moreso a formula I haven’t seen good results from outside of select symphonic rock arrangements. Hirano here makes it even worse with her overambition. Apparently she realises that she can’t sing, and attempts to compensate by trying even harder… making it worse. There’s only so much recording editors can do, and when mixed with symphony hall acoustics, it’s even more apparent. Though as a counter, Chihara’s more conservative performance was easier on the ears and much more enjoyable. I guess simplicity as a requisite of harmony has become a central rule of contemporary music. =3=
Of course, the majority of the arrangements featured a generous lack of Hirano, so my hopes were not all gone. The first few pieces had been enough to keep my attention, and while they had been “fun”, only the Mikuru arrangements had left a particularly strong impression. However, the rest of the album was quite a ride, especially the Hare Hare Yukai arrangement.
As a whole I enjoyed the efforts of Hamaguchi and the ever-stringy Tokyo Philharmonic (though seemingly not as much as you did), but the album didn’t leave as much of an impact as, say, the Aria piano arrangements you mentioned (harmony in simplicity again?). And though the “Bolero”-esque excerpt of Shostakovich’s 7th did little for the album, remember that the first epic space battle in Conquest was executed to the entirety of Ravel’s simple tune.

By: mitayashi

mitayashi — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:04:12 +0000

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By: zzeroparticle

zzeroparticle — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:23:18 +0000

@Steve D.
My thought is that it’s not a bad idea to use vocals just to add a bit of variety (though I agree that an orchestra-only version would have been fantastic). The problem, as you said, is that Hirano and Chihara just don’t cut it quite as well with that orchestral backdrop. While I’ve seen it done well through the various Final Fantasy concerts that have been floating around, the vocal aspects for Haruhi just weren’t on the caliber of the Final Fantasy stuff.

Otherwise, agreed with everything else. I can’t seem to stop marveling at how well most of the other pieces turned out.

By: Steve D.

Steve D. — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:24:01 +0000

Enjoyed your thoughtful review. Adapting music that is not classical to begin with to a symphonic form has always been a dicey proposition. Arrangement is everything and, for the most part, the right choices were made in this adaptation. However, the discussion of Hirano’s poor performance has left out the central problem concerning the vocal selections. I don’t blame her so much as I do the idea of having anyone sing at all. The concert should have been entirely orchestral. I suppose having Hirano and Chihara there added to the excitement of the event and gave the musical flow some variety, but all of the vocal tracks feel forced. The pop singing is grafted unnaturally onto a classical backdrop. I would have enjoyed an instrumental version of “Bouken Desho Desho?” Aside from this artistic mistake, I think this recording is a lot of fun.

By: zzeroparticle

zzeroparticle — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:38:12 +0000

@Seinime
I’d have to disagree if you’re referring to Aya’s voice. The orchestration is pretty spiffy though.

@Reltair
It’s a bit on the expensive side, but I think it’s worth it after giving it multiple listens. Haruhi’s music being arranged in this fashion is surprisingly good when done right.

@RP
You’d be well-served not to listen to Recital. I tried giving it another look and couldn’t stand how awful it was.

@taka
That’s a good point you made about Aya in that there were times where she can’t out-sing the orchestra and becomes completely dwarfed by it. If the other songs were to be sung by an opera singer, one can hope it’s as good as when they used one to sing Final Fantasy VI’s opera portion when that got orchestrated.

Wish orchestral arrangements in the anime community were more commonplace though. That’s an area in which I’d like to see more development.

@Onibaku
Glad you liked it! Solid arrangements all-around.

By: Onibaku

Onibaku — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:36:35 +0000

I actually enjoyed it, though the remade versions of Aya’s songs left something to be desired

By: taka

taka — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:25:44 +0000

I would have loved to hear God Knows… and the other Hirano song with an actual professional opera singer or the like. I think her biggest problem (besides being offkey and sounding like she’s struggling to breathe) is that she just count out sing the orchestra. The pieces are loud and boisterous and she gets drowned out by them during most parts of the song. As opposed to Minorin who gets louder (for the most part) when her song gets louder. Aya just can’t do that.

I wonder about the choice of having the vocalists sing in the same auditorium that the orchestra was recording in. It might have sounded better to have recorded the vocals in the studio. I doubt either girl is used to singing with a full orchestra either.

As for the rest of the album; no complaints here, an excellent arrangement. Really surprising to see good orchestral arrangement of anime music.