Rating: 
Summary: best Yes DVD yet
Review: Massive DTS sound, good picture make a "you are there" experience. As soon as Close to the Edge gets heavy, you know why you got this DVD, especially with rare deep cuts like Gates of Delirium, Ritual, and In the Presence Of. The orchestra is young and having a great time playing with Yes. Bob Cesca adds some very cool optional computer graphics that add to the Magnification mystique. The Dreamtime documentary gives you neat behind the scenes footage and is quite funny! (check out the remix of Long Distance Runaround over the end credits). Overall production values are high, this is the best Yes DVD out there! Play it LOUD!
Rating:
Summary: Finally a live video with no cheesy effects
Review: This is their best live dvd/video thus far. The sound and picture quality are perfect. No stupid effects like in "Keys.."
It also comes with a second disc with a "Behind the scenes" thing for this tour and the video for "Don't Go". My only complaint is that it doesn't have Rick or Tony on keyboards. They have another new guy on keyboards. Nowhere near as good as the other guys, but at least he doesn't completely ruin it. If you've never bought a live Yes dvd before, this would definitely be a good one to start with. Now if they would just release a live dvd with the Trevor Rabin/Tony Kaye line-up. hint hint
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Picture, Superb Sound, Awesome Band!
Review: I am perhaps a bit biased, being a lifelong Yes fan. However, it is a simple fact that this DVD is just about flawless in every respect. The band turns in an excellent performance (how they manage to play material of this complexity, with essentially zero mistakes, all the while knowing that they can't blow it because they're being filmed, is beyond my understanding). The video quality is superb (essentially as good as the "House of Blues" DVD, which was impeccable in its video quality), and the sound mix, especially the dts track, is extremely well done. A previous reviewer stated that the band lacks energy -- I submit that the important thing is for the music to have energy, and that is certainly there in abundance. Let's please remember that these guys are all in their 50's, and it is a blessing and a gift to all of us that they still have the creative drive to put out music of this quality after all these years. The fact that they don't jump up and down on stage is, if anything, a refreshing change from the frenzy-heavy and talent-light drivel that seems to fill the airwaves these days. These men are true virtuoso musicians, and they channel the energy where it belongs -- in their minds, in their arms and fingers, and in their creativity. A paricularly positive aspect of this DVD is the presence of the orchestra. Being a "classic Yes" fan, I had misgivings about the addition of an orchestra to what is, arguably, already very "orchestral" music in its own right. I was wrong -- the orchestra added wonderfully to the sound, and detracted nothing from it. Plus, it was comprised largely of young, enthusiastic players, who genuinely seemed to love the music and rightfully acted as if it was an honor to be there. Plus, I LOVED the "Roundabout" encore, when the orchestra-girls (of which there were many, and quite nice-looking) stepped out onto the stage and proceeded to dance up a storm with the band -- you could tell that Alan White loved this, and even the ever-serious Maestro Howe couldn't help but grin -- it was a memorable moment, and a powerful testament to the positiveness and the wonderful life-spirit of Yes music. As to the rest of the concert, the personal highlight for me was "Gates of Delirium" (played flawlessly) -- this is an extremely complex piece of music (aren't they all?), and the orchestra, especially in the percussion section, was very, very tight and locked in with the band -- fantastic job. All in all, a must-have DVD for any Yes fan, and a perfect introduction to the band for any novice. Buy this, folks, especially you younger ones that were raised on Grunge and Rap --this is the way rock music was written and played before it became a crime to play one's instrument well, and before it became unfashionable to actually have a positive outlook on life.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing one thing - Rick Wakeman
Review: First let me say that this is a must have for any Yes fan. However...Although the orchestra does a good job filling the void, Rick Wakeman is still missed. It's just not quite completely Yes without him. His stand-in does a competent job on keyboards, but how does one replace the Master. The 'Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman & Howe: An Evening of Yes' video suffers a similar problem with the absence of Chris Squire (who is thankfully present in Symphonic Live). I wish the classic lineup could get together just once for posterity. Okay - enough complaining. Great musicianship & a great concert. I'm giving it 4 stars only because Rick Wakeman is missing in action.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Nice Sound....but no energy!
Review: This dvd has great sound....just like listening to the YES cd Magnification. The video is just plain boring. The only ones worth watching are Alan White and sometimes Chris Squire. Jon Anderson is hopelessly annoying with his song anouncements and Steve Howe acts as if death is only minutes away. I think he falls asleep during "Owner of A Lonely Heart". And the creative input he gives this song is shameful. It makes you wish Trevor Rabin showed up for a guest appearance!!!!! Don't buy this for the video features or the extras, they are boring as well. Close your eyes and it is not too bad. I want to remember YES when they were young and vital and had some energy. Oh by the way, did I mention this video is boring.
Rating:
Summary: At last, Yes on film hits the heights...
Review: This excellent production will rapidly become the Mecca of Yes on film. After nearly 34 years and counting the band had still not released an adequate visual representation of their powerful live concerts. 'House Of Yes' (from the House of Blues on 'The Ladder' tour) came nearest, but the 1970s attempts ('Yessongs' and 'Live In Philadelphia') are sub par, and the 1996 'Keys To Ascension' video was ruined by post-production and appalling graphics. Now, finally, they've pulled it off. Two and a half hours of sublime music, intelligent filming, good direction, sensible production and great sound. The occasion, as most reading this will know, is the 2001 Yes Symphonic Tour - in this case a concert in Amsterdam. The fact that the shoot took place in Europe adds to the enjoyment, as audiences in this part of the hemisphere tend actually to listen to music rather than to yell and scream while it is happening. This removes most irritating aural distractions from the listener's perspective, and avoids elimination problems at the production end. The idea of Yes appearing with an orchestra was greeted with understandable scepticism in some quarters. The possibilities of overkill, mismatch or descent into musak were enough to make anyone who cares about their music nervous. Fortunately, composer Larry Groupe handles arrangements of classic material with taste and restraint, and the young European Festival Orchestra under Wilhelm Kietel was well settled in by the time this was filmed. Indeed they seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. It is good to be able to hear what they add. This was not always possible as a member of the audience. The highlights of the concert are undoubtedly superb versions of three 20-minute Yes epics: 'Close To The Edge', 'Gates of Delirium' (from 'Relayer') and 'Ritual' (from 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'). The playing and the mix are top notch here. What's more, director Aubrey Powell understands the need to ensure that visual and musical events are in synch. Obvious maybe, but not evident on past Yes video outings. Those who dismiss Yes as sound and fury signifying little might not be entirely assuaged by these performances, but is difficult for some of us not to be moved by the grandeur, ambition and architecture of their sound - even if we may have moved beyond the moment in time that was progressive rock in other ways. 'And You And I', 'Long Distance Runaround' (with a rather incongruous cinematic orchestral prelude) and 'Starship Trooper' also come off well, even if they emphasise the fact that bassist Chris Squire's dress sense is as laughably misguided as ever. Steve Howe provides a good acoustic guitar interlude with the Spanish strains of 'Mood For A Day' and his arrangement of the second movement of Vivaldi's Lute Concerto in D major. The latter makes me slightly anxious, as it doesn't really do justice to the original. But it has a few interesting harmonic quirks to enliven interest. The new material (from the 'Magnification', album, 2001) is mixed in its live realisation. The longish 'In The Presence Of' works well, especially the driving coda. Only the cloying opening theme lets it down. 'Don't Go' is a frivolous add-on, frankly. The title track sounds pretty good here, but it lost its accents and embellishments in the actual concerts. The ability to mix the orchestra better on this DVD/video production helps enormously. At the end, Yes throw in a surprise 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' (without orchestra) as well as the ubiquitous 'All Good People' and 'Roundabout', on which the orchestra re-appear to jive engagingly in the background. Steve Howe is clearly none-too-keen on his role in the Trevor Rabin-era material, and who can blame him? For the most part he strums, allowing keyboards sideman Tom Brislin - who plays wonderfully throughout - to adapt the mid-song solo through some judicious synth pitch bending. Howe returns at the end to add something much more guitaritic, but in his own style. This DVD features the entire concert, Jon Anderson's amusingly off-kilter between-song patter included. There are visual augmentations available, but thankfully you can switch these distractions off, put your feet up and focus on the playing of all concerned. And with a set list like this, who wouldn't want to? One final, pedantic point. Though the word symphonic is used carelessly as a synonym for everything involving a larger-than-chamber orchestra these days, this is in fact 'Yes orchestral'. There have been laboured attempts to find sonata form in their longer works. But everyone knows that they were not written with that intent, and the symphonic moniker misses the point. Yes at their best (on the three classic albums from which over an hour of this superb film is taken) are powerful and inventive in their own right. They do not need misplaced attributions from other genres to make the credible. Yes may look aged, but their sound has continuing vitality. Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Yes _ A New Level In Perfection!
Review: On November 21st and 22nd 2001 Yes visited the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam and gave 2 concerts ... the 2nd one ... was filmed and is now available on video and DVD. ... the DVD version [has] a beautiful mix of band and orchestra ... The DTS sound gives it all an extra dimension . The concert starts with an overture by the orchestra, that is not visible at that moment. The background is a Roger Dean-like landscape. After the intro the band starts with the epic Close to the Edge and, immediately, you sense the asset the orchestra is for this song. It brought tears in my eyes from emotion to see young orchestra members with such dedication to music that was written before they were even born. Also on screen there appear icons for animation in the background and there are multiple camera-angles in this song possible. Next is Long Distance Runaround from the Fragile album with a beautiful orchestra opening that is really an asset to the song. From the new album Magnification they played Don't go first. I think it's not their most powerful track of the album and it surprised me the song did it live very well. In the Presence Off, also from their latest album, are, together with Dreamtime, my favourites. In arrangement and length it's a 2001 Yes semi-epic. Then, oh my God, finally, after all these years, Gates of Delirium is been introduced. Together with C.T.T.E this is the mother of all Yes epics. Tom Brislin really showed his craftsmanship in the "war" part of the song. This is a perfect song to play with an orchestra and you can hear that they do a perfect job in the changeover from the "war" part to the "peace" part of the song .Soon oh Soon let's the song end in a sea of tranquillity. Multi-camera angles and animations of war are also visible during this song. After this epic we are attended by maestro Steve Howe and he entertains us with his guitar virtuoso by playing two songs of his solo albums. Another golden oldie is Starship Trooper from the Yesalbum. During this song the orchestra has leave of absence and immediately you get an "unplugged" feeling when they are not there. The harmonies are perfect in this song and the only drawback is the shifting from the 1st layer to the second layer on the DVD and the lack of the Wakeman solo on his moog during the end of the song because Brislin played it a little thin in my opinion. Anderson states that the day before they played the next song for the first time live and he introduces the title track of their last album; Magnification. One of the highlights of their album and played perfectly on stage. It's back to 1972 with And You And I. Played live a zillion times but never lost it's charisma. In the multi-camera angle you can see animation with 2 robots. If you haven't seen this, you ain't seen nothing yet ; Ritual, from the "Tales" album is one of the four tracks of this double album and one of two, for me, accessible tracks. The drum part in the middle with Anderson, Squire, Brislin and White makes it an attraction of the first order. What an energy pours out of that song! From the time of it's first release on the Yesalbum "I,ve Seen All Good People"has always been a great rock song that survived decades of rock history. So get up and boogie: as Anderson says in the intro to the audience. ... with all the cameras rolling, Steve had to make concessions and "Owner" was played before the last song from this evening; Roundabout from the Fragile album. During this song the stage is filled with all the members of the orchestra waving and dancing on the music and expressing their joy of being part of performing in timeless music by a timeless band. Yes, what a wonderful, magical evening it was. Every bit of it captured on a perfect DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely Entertaining
Review: This is Yes' best videotaped concert. The band, in its many iterations, has come back from "delirium" many times in its 35 year history. This DVD concert shows how they were, in 2002, able to combine their wisdom in sticking with their older, longer format songs with the subtle use of a small orchestra to "fill in the gaps." These guys are clearly older and a bit slower than they used to be, but, since they're such great musicians (unquestionably the most talented lineup of all rock bands), the quality of their performance is still outstanding. As mentioned in other reviews, "The Gates of Delirium" is probably the best of the selected set list since it incorporates the orchestra the most effectively. Yes pretty much sticks to pre-1975 releases with the exception of "OOALH" and three selections from "Magnification," their fairly recent CD on which orchestral arrangements are overdubbed. All in all, this is definitely a worthwhile and entertaining investment.
Rating:
Summary: Yessymphonic
Review: This is a great DVD. It is such an unbelievable experience. The orchestra is amazing. The animation is really cool too. The only problem I have with this is the first actual yes song on it, close to the edge. Dont get me wrong, this is my favorite yes song, but when they play it live, they slow it down a lot. I think it sounds better on CD. But dont worry, you can still enjoy the song and other great songs like: And you and I, magnification, ritual (great stage performance), soon, Long distance runaround, I've seen all good people and more. It also includes a steve howe solo section where he plays: Lute Concerto in D major (by Vivaldi, arranged by Steve) and Mood for a Day
Rating:
Summary: The Yes I always come back to
Review: Lots of people have said lots of different things about this DVD - individual performances, the role of the orchestra, the sound mix etc, so I'm not going to go over that all again.
I've been a Yes fan for over 30 years (I started late!). Of all the Yes material that I own, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, THIS is the one that I come back to when I REALLY want to unwind at the end of the week, with a glass (or two) of wine and allow myself to be transported away from the hassles of the world. It soars, it rocks, it thunders, it whispers and it moves me. They're all great, even the orchestra, and I NEVER tire of it. When it finishes, I feel better. Can anyone ask more from a group of artists?
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