Rating: 
Summary: MEJOR QUE ESTA PRESENTACION EN VIVO NO HAY
Review: HE SIDO FAN DEL GRUPO YES DESDE LOS AÑOS 70 Y LA VERDAD ES DE QUE HE PODIDO APRECIAR, GRACIAS A ESTE DVD LA MAGNIFICA EJECUCION INSTRUMENTAL Y LAS VOCES QUE POSEEN SUS MIEMBROS.
ELLOS HAN SIDO LOS PIONEROS CON GRAN EXITO EN ESTE ESTILO MUSICAL EL CUAL INVOLUCRA LA PARTICIPACION DE UNA ORQUESTA SINFONICA EN SU MUY EXCLUSIVO ESTILO DE ROCK PROGRESIVO.
SIEMPRE ME HE SENTIDO TRANSPORTADO A UN ESPACIO MARAVILLOSO AL ESCUCHAR MUCHAS DE SUS MELODIAS.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Yes! Yes! Yes!
Review: I first saw Yes live during the Yessongs tour and later for the Relayer and 90125 tours. Great stuff but this show with the awesome symphony backing made songs like "Gates of Delirium" and "Ritual" so much more accessible to me anyway. Keyboards were mixed down too low and Steve Howe lacked a little fire, but Allen White's drumming and exaggerated accents worked well with the symphony backing. Chris Squire is great as usual in spite of tights(!) and Jon Anderson's vocals have never been better. Good viewing for any new Yes fans too.
Rating: 
Summary: The song melody is worst
Review: There sang more like chanting or reading the bible then rock and roll.
I can see the audiens sitting down on the floor or standing still
like a lamb post without any responds to their music except the
second last song..... if you compare this group with Bad company
"merchant cool" you will known what I mean....
Thank you
from music lover
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: Much of what I thought about this DVD was covered in the other reviews. Definitely a "must-have", worth the money, but don't expect performances that rival the intensity of the album versions. I was especially surprised at the half-tempo intro to "Close to the Edge". Clearly, Howe can still perform at the original tempo, perhaps it was slowed to keep the orchestra in sync and for clarity, but it lost much of the impact of the album version. I thought Jon's singing was excellent, and White and Squire put in good performances. Howe had his moments, he still has plenty of chops, but he never had decent tone, and it's worse than ever on this DVD. I had to laugh at his comment on the documentary where he expresses joy at being the only guitarist on this album so that he can his express his unique approach. True, he's a pioneer and is immediately distinguishable, but it' wouldn't hurt him if he didn't sound like he was playing a [cheap] Silvertone guitar through a $30 pawn-shop amplifier :-). Maybe he should take some tips from those other guitarists he was forced to share the limelight with on recent Yes albums.
Rating: 
Summary: YES Symphonic Live
Review: First the positive:YES music works incredibly well with an orchestra. I feel the arrangements were interesting and paid attention to as many elements of the 5-piece instrumentation that is YES music as a whole. In particular to Squire's bass lines, which I find time and time again to have the most orchestral qualities in YES music. When the orchestra duplicated his bass lines on certain songs, it seemed that was the way it was always meant to be heard. Anderson's vocals are really as good as they ever were, and I liked the fact that less FX were used. Often in the past he has had tons and tons of FX on his voice and it in no way augments YES's repertoire, it buries it. Symphonic gives you Anderson's voice pretty clear and un-effected. Chris Squire & Alan White still prove to be the strength of YES throughout all its line-ups. Their energy and enthusiasm keeps this disc from slipping into the NEGATIVE which is Howe's performance throughout. Not in his execution and playing, but in his schoolteacher, you are the student attitude that prevails throughout the performance. At one point, Squire comes over during Gates of Delirium to Howe, and as they are playing the same notes, looks to him for some sort of interaction. Howe looks at him like he's asking him for money, or doesn't understand if there's something wrong with the other side of the stage where Squire's just arrived from. I found this off-putting and distracting from one of the best performances on the DVD which is Gates of Delirium. Another reviewer has commented about Howe's guitar sound, and I have to agree. It has lost alot of its bite and drive and the parts now suffer from lack of energy but not execution. Howe is still a wonderful player, but I honestly do not 'feel' anything from him in this concert. Its the major weak point in an otherwise really good concert. The three songs from MAGNIFICATION I found to be the other weakness. I know alot of YES fans have said that this is their best work in a long time, and maybe YES decided to play the three most uninteresting songs from the actual album, I cannot tell having never bought it. I just re-listened to them again a few days ago to see if my opinion had changed. I understand YES's insistence on returning to longer pieces, concerning IN The Presence Of, but since 96's Keys to Ascension, I just find these longer pieces don't have enough going on in them to justify being 10 minutes or longer. Not the case in older Yes material that far exceeded the 10 minute length. They just kind of drift on one theme and then move to a completely different theme for another 4 minutes without any sort of inventiveness that used to be there in their work. Still, Squire & White carry the energy required to get through those pieces, and the orchestra seemed to like the songs. They just did nothing for me. Yes since 1996 have left me wishing they would go forward instead of backwards. Recorded very well and much better than Keys To Ascension, an orchestra added to their music is something to see and enjoy, particularly on the material where it can really be shown how intricate and special YES music was at a certain time. Despite the negatives I've brought up, I would recommend it over the other live performances released by Yes the past few years.
Rating:
Summary: YES- At Their Orchestral Best!
Review: Yes music, The sheer enchantment of pure Yes music times 100!!!
And this is putting it lightly! A Yes fans ecstasy, a newby's awakening!! This was, and is what your Mom and Dad's world is all about!(Yes Fans) Pure love for music and the emotion it evokes! A must buy for EVERYONE!!![.]Please put this Group in the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame! YES, The essence of all that is GOOD! What's in a name anyway. Y E S
Rating:
Summary: The pinnacle of latter-day Yes.
Review: I could go in depth about how Yes has lost their youth and innocence since The Yes Album, or about how they hit a self-proclaimed rock bottom just a few months before this show, or about how the band has been altered so many times with the revolving door at the keyboard position. When you hear the first overture of the orchestra, and the sounds of nature that open up Close to the Edge, none of this will matter to you. This was the second of two shows played on back-to-back nights in Amsterdam featuring Wilhelm Keitel and the European Festival Orchestra, and the programme features Yes playing on a particularly good night for them. Beautiful song selection and sequence, coupled with the depth and presence of the orchestra, make for a very exciting listen. Epics, there are a few. The aforementioned Close to the Edge, had it been sans symphony, would have been nothing in particular to cheer about. Add the forty or so musicians behind then (many of which are cute ladies!) and a beautiful arrangement of strings, horns, and percussion, and you've got the makings of a truly breathtaking opener. Steve's clean guitar tones and a mildly slower tempo give the song a mellower feel, albeit with reduced attack. Gates of Delirium is another song that greatly benefits from having an orchestral arrangement behind it. The substitution of synthed horns for a real horn section in the hectic middle section makes for a moving experience. And just wait until you hear Soon with real strings behind it! Both these songs, however, take a backseat to the night's magnum opus, Ritual. Being a big fan of percussion, and having heard that the song featured not only an extended Alan White drum solo, but also a very Ritual-istic performance of the remaining band members banging on various drums, I could not help but sit at the edge of my seat throughout the thirty-minute performance. I won't spoil anything, but this song will move you. There is a part in the song where the camera angles purposely cut Steve out, and when he finally does come back in, it may bring you to tears! Other highlights of the programme include a lilting version of In the Presence of, from the new Magnification disc, and a funky orchestra-driven Long Distance Runaround. And You and I, though it has been a staple of most every Yes concert for the past thirty years, deserves a second listen with the orchestra behind it. And I haven't neglected to mention Steve's guitar interlude in the middle of the evening. We are treated to a live Mood for a Day, and a Steve Howe arranged version of Vivaldi's Lute Concerto. Just watching Steve's fingers gracefully and precisely move about the fretboard is enough to inspire any prospective guitarist. Low points, few as they may be, must be mentioned for the sake of contrast. Owner of a Lonely Heart and Roundabout, the two songs that Yes typically closes EVERY concert with, have been done better on other live albums, notably House of Yes. At some points the stereo mix favors the bass or vocals over guitar and keyboard. Sometimes I find myself straining to hear Tom Brislin, tour keyboardist, above the symphony. And about Tom: He seems like his life depends on an over-enthusiastic performance. He bangs on his poor keyboards during Gates, and is overall too melodramatic. Of course, this is given with the fact that he was probably just some kid who loves Yes, who was sitting in his basement plugging away at Wakeman's riffs when he got the call. This concert shows Yes at its most grandiose, yet between songs at its most down to earth. The documentary included is also a welcome reminder that Yes aren't just music making machines, they're just four (five) mortal men with incredible talent who put on a hell of a great live show.
Rating:
Summary: Technical Difficulties
Review: Is it me or does the 5.1 and DTS mix lean to the right? The 2.0 is swell with bass to spare. Am I wrong?
Rating:
Summary: Technical Difficulties
Review: Is it me or does the 5.1 and DTS mix lean to the right?The 2.0 is fine.
Rating:
Summary: Yes on DVD fantastic
Review: I have been an avid Yes fan since 1972. I have been to almost every concert in the Hartford CT. area since then. I worked as a live concert sound engineer for several years. I also play bass and keyboards. My point is this DVD is the best I have ever seen-heard. The mix is nearly perfect, the visual is excellent, the orchestra fills in just enough and not too much.
I was at the Oakdale theater in Waterford when Yes had the symphony with them there and I loved that, this DVD is even better. Buy this DVD and enjoy Yes as I'm sure the band intended. In fact buy two just in case something happens to the first one.
Gary D.
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