Lenna's Theme (Final Fantasy V) on violin and piano (duet with Chris | Amaterasu)

[moatddtutorials]

Great job, both of ya! You both played with fantastic feeling.

[NightbreakDreamer]

It's very interesting to see the pianist pluck the strings of the instrument. It gives the sound of the piano a different touch (no pun intended, lol). This was really a great performance and rendition by you two skilled musicians. :)

[MrMvh92]

I think I found a new subscription. This is just.... so beautiful. Fact that I was sad when it stopped at 2:05 says enough :'(

[JoshCzoski]

WOW impressive job with those artificial harmonics!! It's so hard to pull that off, let alone with such elegance!

[RoldaoKanon]

Congratulations.

This is one of the more beautiful of the FF series.

[S3kuh4r4]

awe inspiring like usual... i'm flabbergasted. but random kudos to Chris for the great violin rendition. is it just me, or did i do a zithar imitation at the start of the song? anyway, this made my day :)



[AcroUltra]

Gave me chills

[goemon9378]

Very nice

[DeathToTheseWalls]

Divine.

[Shrack]

Good stuff Chris :)

[batlin]

Supreme... Well done lads!

[tkuzzz]

You should add some keyboard sounds too it'll be awesome!

[Callyfin]

Gave me goosebumps. An amazing duet between you two, with some very beautiful techniques showcased by the pair of you.

I love the really earthy, almost ethereal thrum the plucking of the bass strings in the piano gives. It's a really interesting sound you don't hear often outside of synthesised instruments pushing beyond a real instruments limits.

[8Amaterasu8]

@Callyfin Thanks for the comments, I was also really surprised when I saw him doing that in the video he sent me, I was like 'is he allowed to do that? =o'.

[Shinainaru]

=O

An amazing pianist and Amaterasu collab... I can die happily now XD

Fantastic work on both parts... I've never actually seen anyone pluck the piano strings before o.o

Perfect!

[UncleRob199]

gorjus

[VirtualHarmonies]

I would love to see you do "Beyond the Deep Blue Seas" from this game! I love that song and I'd like to do that piece someday myself. Also I know a Verdegrand arrangement for that would be far better than the sheets available. :) I'm just not a huge FFV fan for tunes lol. ;) The only 4 pieces I really like are Lenna's Theme, Beyond the Deep Blue Seas, the Piano Lessons (which I've planned on doing something with for a while) ;) , and Battle with Gilgamesh.

[Verdegrand]

@VirtualHarmonies yeah those are beautiful pieces, i had eventually planned to to Beyond the Depp Blue Seas sometime, and Gilgamesh is iconic, of course :)

[NoElixirs]

@VirtualHarmonies

My exact thoughts. I would like to see "Beyond the Deep Blue Sea".

[GooseberryMk3]

Greetings from the Gooseberry! Nice choice of piece, I really wasn't expecting this one. The duet was beautiful, though I thought the piano could've been a little louder. Anyway, I love the string plucking, it really changes the sound of the instrument and I was also pleased to see you making those little downward runs on the left hand round 0:45. You've been playing slower pieces recently, and it was nice to see an small injection of speed there, especially since your touch is so delicate. <3

[Verdegrand]

@GooseberryMk3 hey, thanks man, I appreciate it a lot, you are always very supportive. Yeah those downward runs? They are my favorite part of the bass in the original, so I just had to pay tribute to that. About the piano volume, it's tricky with this video, because the plucked strings are very quiet compared to the rest, so if the volume of the piano would be raised, the right hand would drown out the violin too much. Always a challenge to get good balance in such videos :)

[GooseberryMk3]

@Verdegrand I understand, I wasn't really criticizing the volume anyway, it wasn't that much of an issue :) I was actually wondering about the faster playing though because of your fingers - I seem to remember you mentioning an uncertain condition and I was wondering how you were managing with that. Are you still able to play Akagi Party for example? xD

[Verdegrand]

@GooseberryMk3 oh i see, heh no problem. well the piano part for this was recorded last year. the stuff i've uploaded in the past week is beyond what i should play at the moment, so in the coming months, all new recordings that i do are going to be even slower or simpler than that. akagi party e.g. is well beyond what i could do at the moment, nice that someone remembers that video, thanks :)

[GooseberryMk3]

@Verdegrand You've got to be kidding! How could anyone forget that video, it's the best version of that piece on teh intranetz! No lies. I'm sure you've seen the Arkton (he rocks) version for example - that's the one with the most views - it's seriously good, and the tempo is spot on. But your version is so much more... powerful, and that's why you're my favourite pianist on YouTube <3 Oh, and I've said this before, but your commitment to your fans is commendable :)

[Verdegrand]

@GooseberryMk3 thanks for your kind words, they are highly appreciated. akagi party was one of my first videos and it was fun to play back then, i have good memories of that.

[noseriouslyguys]

You might not be aware of this, Verdegrand... but you are in fact a celestial being.

[dryzalizer]

WTG Verde, thanks for doing this one. I am just now getting over my most recent obsession with FFV, Lenna is an amazing character and this is a really unique arrangement that you've put together!

[Verdegrand]

@dryzalizer hey dryz, thanks man i appreciate it. good to hear about your playthroughs of FFV, and it was a great timing to put up the video :)

[ArchersBowHaveBroken]

Verdegrand, I'm loving that you're just pumping these videos out, every time i hear a new tune it motivates me to continue on my path of learning the piano. Very nice job w/ this one, I particularly enjoyed the bass plucking. ^^ Keep it up!

[Verdegrand]

@ArchersBowHaveBroken thanks man, i appreciate it. you have a nice screen name btw ;)

[iBab0]

This is so beautiful!<3 I've never played any of the FF games, but the soundtracks are so amazing.. I've been listening to game musics lately all thanks to you :D great job, I'm always looking forward to more videos from you ^^

[ArchersBowHaveBroken]

@iBab0 You should definitely take some time to play at least 1 or 2 of the series. This music while beautiful on it's own, is enhanced greatly with nostalgia and empathy that one acquires to the characters.

[Verdegrand]

@iBab0 thank you, and it's good to hear you are getting more into game music, there is lots of great stuff there and yeah i agree with archer, the games are worth checking out, especiall if you enjoy the music :)

[daigoro789]

(1) goodness - such an amazing video - there is so much going on here!!! firsly, lenna's theme - WIN! such a beautiful theme, i remember you saying on my vid that you didn't think that the official PC did it justice - well, in comparison to this, haha, you're right! as for the actual playing - OMDays, i've never heard a sound like that from the violin before, such awesome playing by amaterasu - (instant subscribe), it's such an unusual yet attention attracting sound...

[daigoro789]

@daigoro789 (2) like the gentle braying of a unicorn or something. and your playing, and string plucking technique was sublime too - i was looking out for the labels on the strings but maybe you used them just as you were practising? the overall effect of this video - pure MAGIC man!

[Verdegrand]

@daigoro789 hey thanks man, i appreciate it. yeah amaterasu's sound is really unique, that's something that i think is more prominent with violinists than with pianists, that they produce a totally distinct sounds with their owned instruments that set them apart from each other and makes them instantly recognizable. oh and the labels were still on the strings, you can see them best in the end when my arm is out of the way if you look close enough.

[Arrow9100kj]

Amazing work V! The arrangement is lovely. Lenna's theme was always one of my favourites from FFV and I feel like the Piano Collections arrangement didnt do it justice, so glad that I have this now. And about Chris's harmonics' - he was playing artificial harmonics which are way tougher than natural harmonics. He had to place his index finger a certain interval away from his extended pinky which was lightly resting on the string. Its a very advanced technique and quite the troublesome one ^o^!

[Verdegrand]

@Arrow9100kj hi thanks for your comment, yeah the PC arrangement didn't go far enough, it's from the earlier collections too and was somewhat of a letdown for me, but i guess it was aimed at a different audience too. you seem to know a lot about violin technique, i have yet to learn a lot about it and i'm still fascinated by that stuff.

[VirtualHarmonies]

I really enjoyed this and I'm not much of a fan for the ffv soundtrack in general, but this song is one of the few I have always liked a lot. You two really captured the true essence of is piece, especially with the quiet violin in the beginning and the piano string plucking towards the end. Very nice V! :)

[PhilHartshorn]

Great performance! Love the bass section with the strings, it's what really gives this song life. One of my favorite Uematsu songs. FFV has an extremely underrated soundtrack with a lot of overlooked gems.

[TheIshter]

This is absolutely lovely. I haven't heard any music from V, I might get into that now.

And somehow, I feel like you're cheating on Josh. ;_;

[Verdegrand]

@TheIshter thanks, and yeah the FFV soundtrack has some really great pieces and it's worth to listen to. about josh, there are no hard feelings and we are actually planning to do more duets together :)

[OparioMcgee]

Oh, wonderful! I'm a big fan of Amaterasu's work, and Lenna's theme was a great choice, and that plucking of the bass strings in the piano REALLY gives it the feel of the original MIDI.

[Kiamet]

Fantastic collab guys! FFV music really has some of the most evocative and interesting melodies Uematsu has ever written.

[Verdegrand]

@Kiamet thanks, and great to hear your opinion on the FFV soundtrack, i agree that it takes a very special place in Uematsu's compositions.

[morpheas768]

This is so amazing and beautiful in a unique way.

Maybe its the unusual duet "type", or the plucking of the grand's strings, I dont know why, but it has a really unique touch, and I absolutely love it :)

[lara6683]

Really great! Enjoyed this a lot, and he's a fantastic violinist

[SabrinaValenzuela]

I adore this theme ~ this is wonderful! <3

[Verdegrand]

@SabrinaValenzuela thank you, i like the original theme a lot and i was looking forward to doing this :)

[Godzdeal]

that was nice, thx for uploading this ^^

[RobinLSL]

We make it sound like harmonics are a super revolutionary technique when they're pretty much standard (well, at least wayyyy more standard than pizzicato on the piano!! ^^). I never really thought about harmonics making a flute-like sound but it's definitely true. Interesting.

Lenna's theme was an excellent choice for that kind of playing, the ambience this piece creates really goes well with the sounds you experimented with :)

[RobinLSL]

@RobinLSL errr I dunno why but I wrote "we" instead of "you"! X)

[Verdegrand]

@RobinLSL hi, thanks for your comment. yeah if there is a piece that lends itself to string plucking it would be this one. about the harmonics, i myself don't know too much about violin technique, but once i heard flautando for the first time it sounded like magic, so for me it is indeed revolutionary :) and i don't see this technique used too often, so i would still think it is not standard and a pretty advanced technique.

[funnyfacerful]

beautiful as always