New Wax Wednesday

Progressive music and classically trained orchestras go together like, well, progressive music and classically trained orchestras. Truth is, the marriage of music made by forward-thinking artists with widely expanded symphonic arrangements has always appealed to my own open-minded compositional sensitivities. Though sometimes it’s a union that perhaps works better on staff paper, when the prog/orchestral sonic matrimony works, it really works — and that was clearly the idea behind Yes’ Symphonic Live, a 180g 4LP set that documents a full 14-song set from the band’s 2001 Symphonic Tour that was released via Mercury Studios/UMG on January 23, 2026.

Yes — then down to a four-piece core band comprised of vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, and drummer Alan White — had been on tour that fall in support of their symphonic-oriented album on Eagle/Beyond, September 2001’s Magnification, with Tom Brislin (now with Kansas) handling the keyboard duties. For Symphonic Live, Yes enlisted the European Festival Orchestra, as conducted by Wilhelm Keitel, to join them onstage abroad in order to effectively bring the “spirit” of Magnification to life, alongside some re-imagined interpretations of a number of their classic tracks, for the 14 songs recorded live at Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on November 22, 2001.

To get a taste of what’s in store for you on Symphonic Live, check out the revamped “Long Distance Runaround” (LP1, Side B, Track 1) below, via its official YouTube clip.

The stats are these. The 4LP Symphonic Live set was pressed on 180g vinyl in Germany (hence, most likely at Optimal), and was half-speed mastered by Mazen Murad. The lacquers were cut by Naweed at Whitfield Mastering in London. Jordan Berlant was the original project’s co-executive producer. Symphonic Live features seven sides of music in total, along with an etching of the album artwork on LP4, Side H. (You’ll see what it looks like toward the end of this review.)

The 180g 4LP gatefold set for Symphonic Live sports a most reasonable SRP of $45.99, and it can be ordered from Music Direct here, and/or via the MD link graphic that appears just ahead of the tracklisting section at the end of this story.

Completists should take note that the companion 2CD/1BD clamshell edition of Symphonic Live has an SRP of $30.99, and it can be ordered directly from the official Mercury Studios online shop here. Included in the clamshell are a 16-page booklet with an essay by original album artist/designer Bob Cesca, a foldout poster, and five art cards. Extras on the BD are the promotional video for the Magnification track “Don’t Go” and a 30-minute documentary, “Dreamtime.” (More on the latter in a bit — and you’ll see why.)

Symphonic Live was initially released in 2002 as concurrent 2DVD and 2CD sets via Eagle Eye Media and Eagle Records, respectively. I bought both versions upon release, of course, but I never did pick up the subsequent 2011 Music on Vinyl 2LP set nor the 2018/19 earMusic 180g 2LP editions released in Europe, though I often thought about doing so.

Frankly, I’m more than happy I waited for the new 180g 4LP version, especially given that the nearly half-hour-long “Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)” (LP 3, Side F, Track 1) makes its vinyl debut in this collection. That said, it felt only right to do a pre-needle-drop research refresher to enhance my playback experience. First, I cued up the 30min “Dreamtime: The YesSymphonic Era” doc on the BD, something I hadn’t watched since I got the aforementioned Eagle Eye Media 2DVD release in 2002. “Dreamtime” shows the four core Yesmen in the studio, listening to various playbacks as they mixed the Magnification album proper, which featured orchestral arrangements by Larry Groupé as performed by the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

As Steve Howe says in the doc, “I’ve had to think ‘orchestra’ here and there [. . .] I don’t want to restrain myself. I have to be musical when I know the orchestra are participating.” He goes on to identify that, by his count, there were 45 musicians in said orchestra. A few minutes later in the doc, Chris Squire points out that the last time Yes had played with an orchestra, it was back in 1969, circa the Time and a Word era — and that he also prefers a sweet-spot song length of 10 or 11 minutes. We also see Yes embark on that fall 2011 tour, which gives us added perspective as to how all the performers needed to gel, ebb, and flow accordingly, once the symphonic presentation was undertaken on the live stage.

The 3-minute orchestral “Overture” that commences LP1, Side A is an uplifting start, its inherent drama and volume swells the perfect lead-in to a 20-minute reading of “Close to the Edge,” which remains my favorite Yes track of them all. Wide-panned cymbal and timpani crashes cascade alongside the sounds of nature that spill into the opening instrumental section, which is admittedly less furious and somewhat jazzier than earlier live interpretations of “Edge” — but I view it as yet another layer of the glass onion, if you will. The horn-section punctuations at the end of most of the early verse lines sung by Anderson are nice touches I had forgotten about.

Having just listened to the 2026 edition of 1973’s Tales From Topographic Oceans for our review last week (Footnote 1), I had an even better appreciation for the two full-side performances here of tracks that originated from that musically adventurous and quite challenging 2LP set: “The Gates of Delirium” (LP2, Side C, Track 1) and the aforementioned “Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)” (LP3, Side F, Track 1).

The trio of Magnification-culled songs more than hold their own, especially “In the Presence Of” (LP1, Side B, Track 3), which is perhaps the best, most “Yeslike” track from the band’s final studio LP that featured Anderson as lead vocalist. Howe’s right-channel guitar solo breaks yet again reinforce his prowess as a non-genre-specific instrumentalist. His featured, two-part, 8-minute guitar solo (LP3, Side D, Track 1) only serves as further proof.

I also dug the jauntier approach to parts of “Starship Trooper” (LP3, Side D, Track 2) and the acoustic interplay masterclass on display throughout “And You And I” (LP3, Side E, Track 2). And, of course, it’s hard to go wrong with the elegiac triple play on LP4, Side G, Tracks 1-3: “I’ve Seen All Good People” (the vocal harmonies and the rounds), “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (Squire’s guttural bass, in full bloom), and “Roundabout” (Brislin’s channel-ping-ponging organ solo).

Each of the four LPs in my Symphonic Live set were flat, well-centered, and deep black, and I only detected a few pops and clicks here and there on some of the quieter passages on LP1, Side A and LP3, Side E. The four LPs were each housed in their own respective glossy sleeves, two apiece in each half of the gatefold — something that could have been a packaging nightmare if the sleeves were as snug-tight as others I’ve experienced of late, but I had no issues removing and resleeving any of them.

I’ve seen some online grousing about the lack of band photos in the packaging but there weren’t any included in the original release, so that didn’t really phase me. True, I would have liked to have gotten some kind of historical essay here, and the powers that be certainly could have (re)printed the two-page essay by artist/designer Bob Cesca that’s in the centerfold of the 2CD/1BD clamshell edition’s booklet. In it, Cesca shares insight about his lavish “Talisman” visual stylings and why he rightly brought back Roger Dean’s iconic Yes logo — information vinyl-only customers/listeners would surely like to know as well.

My ratings for Symphonic Live are as follows. The Music gets a 10 (some of it leans more toward 9, while some goes upwards of 11), and the Sound gets an 8.5, as this presentation is much better served spread across seven sides.

Fact is, I consider many of the mind-expansive compositions created by progressive-leaning artists such as Yes to be the 20th and 21st century’s equivalent to the aspirations of our most celebrated classical composers of centuries prior. Yes have also certainly endeavored to evolve with the times — and thus, I continue to get up, and get down, with the wonders of Symphonic Live. Given this 4LP set’s price point, performance acumen, and sound quality, it’s well worth the investment.

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Author bio: Mike Mettler is the editor of Analog Planet in addition to being the Sound Chaser columnist and contributing music editor to one of our other sister sites, Stereophile, in addition to being the regular Vinyl Icons column scribe (and occasional Opinion columnist) for Hi-Fi News and author of numerous box set liner notes. Plus, he’s quite partial to vintage 1967 Mustang fastbacks, but that’s yet another story for a different time and place.

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Footnote 1: If you want to find out what we thought of the new, super deluxe edition of Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans — which includes 2LPs, 12CDs, and 1BD — go here, for our deep-dive review that was posted just last week on February 6, 2026.

YES
SYMPHONIC LIVE
180g 4LP (Mercury Studios/UMG)

LP1 / Side A
1. Overture
2. Close To The Edge

LP1 / Side B
1. Long Distance Runaround
2. Don’t Go
3. In The Presence Of

LP2 / Side C
1. Gates Of Delirium

LP2 / Side D
1. Steve Howe Guitar Solo:
Lute Concerto In D Major, 2nd Movement / Mood For A Day
2. Starship Trooper

LP3 / Side E
1. Magnification
2. And You And I

LP3 / Side F
1. Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil)

LP4 / Side G
1. I’ve Seen All Good People
2. Owner Of A Lonely Heart
3. Roundabout

LP4 / Side H
*No music / album art etching