Final Fantasy VI : Grand Finale Final Fantasy VI : Grand Finale is an arranged album for " Final Fantasy VI " . It contains a selection of tracks , arranged for orchestra and is performed by the Milan Symphony Orchestra . " Aria di Mezzo Carattere " is performed by Svetla Krasteva . The liner notes include Yoshitaka Amano artworks , lyrics to " Aria di Mezzo Carattare " in Italian and Japanese , a message from composer Nobuo Uematsu and photos from the recording sessions . Liner notes ( translated from the original Japanese ) . Message from composer Nobuo Uematsu I was lying down in the Yokohama Oukurasan Bairin Park alone on my 20th birthday , 15 years ago . Around me were several families enjoying that fine , spring day . The kids were 5 , 6 years old , and their parents had to be 35 , 36 . As I thought , " Oh , I was just a small kid like them 15 years ago , and I will be like that father 15 years into the future , " I knew I must be at a turning point . I thought I discovered a new concept , and my heart was overwhelmed with joy . I am 35 today . I still don ' t have a child , but 15 years have passed from that day . It was a short 15 years , just thinking about music . Babies back then must be writing love letters now . During this period , I went through a lot . I find myself trying to forget painful thoughts , and trying to remember only joyful ones . But isn ' t looking back at painful , joyful , and all other experiences , a step to the future ? Don ' t run from bad memories . There ' s no need to stay in a good place all the time , either . Take a deep breath and face them eye - to - eye . Discover how they affect you . Don ' t put a lid on the past . Let it run how it wants to . It is said that past events cannot be changed . But even though we can ' t change what has transpired , we can interpret it in different ways . The future will be different , then . Each one should make meaning of their own events . I wrote a song called " Rising Expectations " on 2 / 7 . The song became the best one I had ever written , by fusing Yuuki Ito ' s lyrics , which truly represented my image . ( I don ' t care what the public says . ) Writing this song was my " realization " at the time . As I heard the completed tape in my car , I cried again and again . I felt myself being cured by a song I wrote to cure another . We can say just about anything to others , but will we be able to be honest to ourselves when we are in trouble ? Can we be as we feel ? Weren ' t we closing our eyes to troubles we must face in the future ? I am not a saint , or some kind of magician . I am just a simple - minded , easy - going man . Though I sometimes think about what I had went through in one to two months , I found hesitation to judge my past lifestyles , conclusions and choices . I will confess the following : I am not satisfied with this album at all . The image I had for each song had been crushed to pieces by this . It is not the arranger ' s fault , nor the performers ' . It is because of my lack of trying to " defend " the image of each song , and my trying to escape by saying , " I did not arrange this . " Because I did help arrange this . Yet , my easiness underestimated the schedule . My carelessness said , " Everything ' s gone well up till now ; it ' s going to be fine this time , too . " But , every mistake began to show up . If I do not write this here , everyone will listen to this CD without any doubts . Some will say to me , " Orchestras are so great . " Some will write to me , and say , " I was touched by it . " If I see the making of this soundtrack as a " job " involving many people , that might be nothing , but . . . There is one part of me that haunts me . I really wanted to make this album work , to be able to create the image that I wanted . To tell you the truth , I think I had always thought of such things when trying to create an album , but I never did . I was being a " goody - goody " every time the question came up to me . I mistook , " I ' d rather quit , than pour out my real feelings and hurt someone , " as kindness . I was scared that I wasn ' t really agreeing with that . . . but , if I expressed my true feelings , everyone would see me as being selfish . " That " was my true feeling ; being scared to look face to face , I escaped by performing as a " kind and cooperating man . " I was living a lie . I do not want to run away from now on . I will face everything that had happened . I realize now that , being truthful to myself , and truthful to others , doesn ' t relate to being kind . I confess my feelings here to punish myself . I was scared to write such things in these liner notes . I am scared now too , but not nearly as much as before . A certain incident happened to me , which was a step toward my escape from the bad cycle that I had been trapped in for years . And I found myself being able to step out to the new world by this incident : I was sitting on the stairs of the Yamaha of Shibuya , smoking and observing the people in the streets on the evening of 3 / 26 . I was waiting for Reiko , my wife , to finish her job . Others may have thought it was strange that a full - grown man was just sitting there , smoking - - but I just enjoyed the feeling of liberty , not caring about such things . " What should I do next ? I can choose anything I want to , " I thought , as I remembered the past . Before marrying Reiko , I was always sitting on the steps of Tokyo , at the Hands Of Shibuya , smoking , waiting for Reiko . . . That was when I was a student and had no idea about my future . " What would I do with my life from now on ? I can do anything . But . . . what should I do ? " I thought of this as I was about to row my little boat into the midst of this large ocean called Liberty . That was 15 years ago . Did I come back to the same place after 25 years ? No , I am moving forward . I may be at the same place for someone looking down on a spiral staircase , but not for someone looking from the side . I am further up . The title , " Grand Finale , " therefore , has an ambiguous meaning . Literally , it means , " Everything went well . " Figuratively , it shows my determination that I will say goodbye to my old lifestyle . I still have a lot of things I don ' t understand , even being 35 years old . There are a lot of things that I know by logic , but I need to go through them in order to truly understand . I am glad I chose music as my career ; I can give gratitude to the people who have taught me , let me know , and let me feel the important elements of life , in the form of love called " music . " For people reading this , and people who aren ' t reading this but know me , I just have to say , " Thanks from the bottom of my heart , for everything I have experienced . " Please , teach me more . Let me go through more . It would be great if we can be happy together . Last but not least , I thank Mr . Nomura for listening to my troubles , and for Mr . Matsushita , who told me his true feelings toward " my " true feelings . Both are wonderful people .