There are occasionally some fantastic concerts featuring music from media organized in the Netherlands. As someone who lives in the north of this country, I often have to travel for a couple of hours to the bigger cities in other parts to attend them. That is why I am always excited when some very promising concerts come to my hometown instead, as is the case with the Metropole Orkest performing Games in Concert: The Score in my local concert hall.
As can be read in previous reports, the Metropole Orkest is not a traditional orchestra. It has many of the same instruments, like the usual strings, but they focus more on playing jazz and pop music, with saxophones, guitar, bass guitar and drums added to their line-up of instruments. While they do have a standard brass section, their players excel in using their instruments in a more bold and jazzy kind of way. I was pretty curious and excited to see how these skills would translate into performing game music. Another aspect that intrigued me is that this concert would contain an interactive part. This evening, the audience would be involved in helping the orchestra play the music and create their own score.
The evening started strong with a piece from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, making the audience aware that the Metropole Orkest was prepared for an evening full of entertainment with their bold performance. In this part of the evening, we could listen to some familiar pieces by Inon Zur from Starfield and Fallout 4, but the biggest surprise for me was the music from Metro: Awakening by Ann-Kathrin Dern. I am quite accustomed to listening to music during these concerts that have been around for a few years, but this fantastic music had just been released. It was one of my highlights of the evening and made me explore the full score the next day.
Next on the program was the interactive part, and to discuss this part, I will deviate from my regular reporting routine. I like to go into detail when special events happen during concerts, but for this interactive part, I will not. It is like playing a game: You do not want to be spoiled with how some parts of the game go. The surprise was what made this part of the concert so fantastic and unique. This interactive part contained some fun game mechanics that we, as the audience, needed to use to interact with the orchestra, the screen, and each other. We had to compete during one part and work together during another to help the orchestra make it to the end of their piece. We used a smartphone app that the Smartphone Orchestra had created to make all these assignments work. As a software developer myself, I was amazed at how innovative and unique the interaction with this app was. It was the first time during a concert that I had to turn up my phone volume as loud as possible instead of putting it in silent mode. After this outstanding interactive part, which took around half an hour, it was time for a small intermission.
The second half started with a banger from Undertale, which was again a fantastic piece to show off the skills of this orchestra and to get the audience’s attention. Two unfamiliar pieces from the old MMO Runescape and from Outer Wilds followed it. After a wonderfully joyful version of the music from Tetris, it was time for the Metropole Orkest to use their big band skills by performing the music from Cuphead. The second piece from that game was especially brilliant because during this boss fight music, the host, Maarten Heijmans, and a random person from the audience tried to defeat that same boss on the big screen.
The last couple of pieces on the program were again a superb blend of music from old and new games because while World of Warcraft is quite an old game, the orchestra performed the music from the latest expansion instead, which had come out last summer. That piece was followed by another cue from a relatively new game, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. The evening concluded with two pieces from the games Sackboy and Rayman Legends that were a bit older.
I was very impressed with this concert. I loved the interactive part, which you should experience by yourself, but the music from existing games was also far beyond my expectations. I knew that the Metropole Orkest would play the music from games like Cuphead masterfully, but other pieces, like the more intimate music from Journey or Outer Wilds, were excellently performed as well.
I also have to applaud their musical choice, with a fantastic blend of pieces ideally suited for this orchestra’s style, some old classics and brand-new pieces. The gaming industry is a very fast-paced business with games coming and going, and having these newly released game music being performed, keeps this concert entertaining and relevant. I saw a program from last year’s concert that contained different pieces that were more relevant back then. I hope they will continue this trend and that these concerts keep filling up concert halls as they did during this concert. I had a fantastic time, and I was very entertained, and judging from the loud cheers from the audience during and after the event, others did as well. I would love to return to a concert in the future to have this experience again.
Concert information
Where: Oosterpoort in Groningen, the Netherlands
When: December 16, 2024
Orchestra: Metropole Orkest conducted by Joeke Hoekstra
Host: Maarten Heijmans
Program
- Mark Mothersbaugh & Wataru Hokoyama – “Rift Apart” from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Inon Zur – Theme from Starfield
- Anne-Kathrin Dern – “Kahn” from Metro Awakening
- Inon Zur – Theme from Fallout 4
- Austin Wintory – “Nascence” from Journey
- Tom Trapp & Eric Magnée – “The Score” from Games in Concert: The Score
Intermission
- Toby Fox – “Megalovania” from Undertale
- James Hannigan – “Main Theme” from Runescape
- Andrew Prahlow – “Timber Hearth” from Outer Wilds
- Traditional – “Korobeiniki” from Tetris
- Kris Maddigan – Cuphead
- “All Bets Are Off”
- “Floral Fury”
- Kaliski, Lefkowitz, Burgess, Acree, Stafford, Arkenstone, Hayes – “The War Within” from World of Warcraft: The War Within
- Brendan Angelides – “Mirage Theme” from Assassin’s Creed Mirage
- Christophe Heral & Billy Martin – “Orchestral Chaos” from Rayman Legends
- Joe Twaites & Jay Waters – “A Big Adventure” from Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Kris Maddigan – “Floral Fury” from Cuphead (encore)
