This will be a shorter post because I’m out of town and things are busy, but tonight in downtown Phoenix is the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses: Master Quest concert.

I caught the original Symphony of the Goddesses tour when it came through Phoenix a few years ago, and it was…good. Several of the arrangements did a fine job of making medleys out of a handful of songs from each game, the venue was nice, and the setup (with the customary giant screen playing clips from different titles) was top-notch.

Having gone to a couple Final Fantasy orchestra concerts since then, I’ve realized why the first Zelda one was only decent — it didn’t have the same life, the same soul. A large part of that is the FF conductor Arnie Roth and his deep, invested knowledge in the music of his series. That was missing from the Zelda experience.

With a new conductor on board, I’m hoping this second Zelda concert will be great. We’ll find out tonight, and I’m sure Michaela will post about her impressions at some point. In the meantime, here’s the 25th anniversary collection of Zelda music that came out right around when the concert tour started. A handful of arrangements from here were played in the early touring setlists as well.

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.