"Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time - Hyrule Symphony" is one of the easier CDs I've had to review as of late. That's because this arranged album is very clear-cut in what it tries to accomplish and what it passes on. So is that a good or bad thing? Well, for Zelda fans at least, it's not bad at all.
Clear-cut Fact #1 is that the music is performed by a string ensemble, and that's about it. There's not a single beat of percussion or a solitary blast of brass to be found on the entire album. There are occasional appearances of ocarina and a couple other instruments, but the focus is almost entirely on the strings. Certainly this limits the range of musical tones that the album is able to achieve, and it can be a bit disappointing. To the album's credit though, the strings do cover a relatively varied array of moods and performance styles. For example, the plucked strings in "Kakariko Forest" give that track a suitably light-hearted feel, while "Market Place" takes on the feel of a country gathering with its performance style.
Clear-cut Fact #2 is that the arrangements are faithful to the original compositions, to put it kindly. You might say that they're simplistic to the point of being almost non-existent. What we basically have are the original compositions as is, with a live string performance replacing the synth. Make no mistake though, this is a huge improvement in itself, as the horrid N64 synth is probably the most glaring fault of the OST. But don't expect any of the sort of dramatic arranged segues and original moments of albums like Symphony Ys '95 and Final Fantasy VI Grand Finale.
One effect of the string-dominant performance and simple arrangement is that the album feels more like an instrumental recital than a game or film score. The different moods of the game may be conveyed to a fair degree, but the sense of drama simply isn't there. As far as my own tastes go, the more drama in my soundtracks the better, but others might appreciate the more strictly musical approach.
Given that these arrangements are so similar in structure to the OST versions, it's fortunate that the producers chose to include such enjoyable themes from the OST. Despite the lack of drama, the memorable melodies and the pleasant sound of the string performance result in an album that is - at the very least - mildly enjoyable throughout. Tracks like "Kakariko Forest", "Kakariko Village" (found previously in the A Link to the Past), and "Zora's Domain", which had pleasant melodies from the beginning, finally get their chance to shine when freed from the merciless N64 synth. "Hyrule Field" actually had a bit of an arranged quality in its OST version, and this translates well into the strings performance. "Ganon" is the only track without merit; with its simplistic composition it becomes repetitive and boring even before the end of its brief one-minute duration.
"Gerudo Valley" deserves special mention. This theme probably stood out more than any other in the OST, and it makes a similarly favorable impression here, as probably the only included Ocarina of Time theme with a powerful epic punch to it.
One track breaks the "Don't touch my OST" rule of arrangement followed by the rest of the album, and that is the "Legend of Zelda Medley" found at the end. A special treat to Zelda fans, this track takes themes from previous installments in the series and arranges them into a dramatic, coherent whole. Included are such fan favorites as the dungeon theme from Zelda 1, the dark overworld theme from A Link to the Past, and of course, the main theme of Zelda that everyone knows and loves. In the previous Zelda arranged album Sound & Drama, I'd complained about how the arranged version of the main theme was almost inferior to the 8-bit original, because it lacked that version's somber intro. Well, Hyrule Symphony has that intro, and it is perfectly suited to strings, as is the rest of the track. Hearing the excellence of this final track makes me wonder how much better the rest of the album could have been with a bit more liberal arrangement.
If Hyrule Symphony just had more diverse instrumentation, more dramatic arrangement, or at least a bit more content over the 42 minutes present, I would give it quite a high recommendation to Zelda fans and non-fans alike. Even so, it is still a quality Ocarina of Time arranged album, and better overall than the arrangements in Sound & Drama. For those who enjoyed Ocarina of Time's original soundtrack, or who wanted to but couldn't because of the mind-numbing synth, Hyrule Symphony is the way to go.