The most common way people experience classical style music these days is via movies and video-games. After seeing The Force Awakens - live in concert, I've become rather a fan of watching movies performed with a live soundtrack.
But what about watching a video game with orchestral accompaniment? We travelled up to Wolverhampton to see "The Witcher":
A one-of-a-kind live event that transforms the lasting legacy and emotional storytelling of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into an immersive concert
Obviously you can't have someone sat there with a PS5 controller while a band plays (although that'd be a hell of a Twitch stream!) instead a large screen projects various cut-scenes and in-game footage. It works pretty well - most of the popular scenes are in there (Geralt in the bathtub got a big cheer) although there was no hyper-extended Gwent session. The videos were a little repetitive. Some of the music is obviously composed to be swelling in the background and so repeated shots of swords looking cool or Geralt looking grumpy were sprinkled throughout.
The highlight was seeing Percival Schuttenbach play a variety of instruments with absolute joy and gusto. The entire band look like they're having a whale of a time, and the conductor encouraged us to whoop and cheer for our favourite scenes (with perhaps a few boos for some of the more notorious enemies).
As soundtracks go, it isn't particularly varied. There's a decent mix of tunes, some with singing, but they do tend to blur into one after a while. Nevertheless, a brilliant time for fans of the game who want to soak up the music.
The Witcher in Concert is on tour around the world now.
Pre- and Post-Show
There was a merchandise stall hidden in one corner of the venue. Between doors opening and the start of the show (about an hour) a video looped through three screens - one of which encouraged up to share our photos with a hashtag. That's fine, but a few more videos wouldn't have gone amiss.
After the show, the conductor said the band would stick around for selfies - which was nice of them.
A touring show like this probably can't spare too much space for large scale models for people to pose with, or a couple of cosplayers to photograph, but it might have been nice if there were something to interact with before and after the show.
