Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 17, 2026

Even a Venn Diagram documenting bands who experienced major success in the seventies probably wouldn't have an intersection with The Carpenters and Yes sharing space anywhere, and yet as soon as I started playing this disc I couldn't help but suddenly think of Richard and Karen and their kind of odd turn into being something akin to an oldies band with their Now and Then album, with an "announcement" of sorts about that decision given in their hit tune which actually subsumes Yes' name in its very title, "Yesterday Once More". Why should this weird connection be relevant? Because while the outer packaging of this release is branded with the Mercury Studios label, once the disc boots, viewers may be surprised to see the very old school Eagle Vision HD branding that was used at the veritable dawn of the 1080 high definition era. And in fact this concert was previously released by Eagle Rock Entertainment close to 15 years ago (see below for a review link), albeit evidently without the CDs and other non disc swag this release offers.

As mentioned above, Yes: Symphonic Live had a Blu-ray release way back in 2011 courtesy of the erstwhile Eagle Rock Entertainment (which rebranded itself as Mercury Studios a few years ago). Svet Atanasov's Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray review offers a recap of the concert and Svet's reaction to the technical presentation.

Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Yes: Symphonic Live is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Mercury Studios (and/or Eagle Vision HD, as the case may be) with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. Svet gave this a 4.0 for video back in 2011, but the perspective of hindsight makes me slightly downgrade the score. There are some curious anomalies on tap, including what kind of oddly looks like upscaling in the opening animation (see screenshot 9), as well as some persistent quasi-noise that Svet mentioned in his review. On the plus side, I personally was pleased to see a lack of banding in the misty stage lighting featuring dark blues in particular, though there are just the barest hints of posterizing at a few points in those same deeply saturated blue hues in particular. Detail levels on all the players tends to be great, at least when they're holding still (Jon Anderson is at near Mick Jagger levels in terms of stage antics). As should probably be expected, there are noticeable combing artifacts in fast motion, as in the baton wielding by the conductor.

Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Yes: Symphonic Live features LPCM 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 options, and the disc is in fact authored in that order, so that the concert defaults to the stereo track, and then toggling first gets you to the lossy surround track. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is obviously the way most folks are going to want to go, and it provides a nicely spacious accounting of the performance, though occasionally I found the backup vocals in particular to be just ever so slightly buried in the mix. Anderson's plaintive tenor of course soars above the instruments (both band and orchestral) without any problems. Fidelity is great throughout and the Howe guitar solo vignette is especially impressive. Optional subtitles are available on the bonus featurette.

Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This repackaging includes the two on disc supplements detailed in Svet's review, linked to above:

• Dreamtime (SD; 31:52)


• Don't Go Video (SD; 4:29)

Additionally this comes packaged in a CD sized box that includes the Blu-ray disc, two CDs, an insert booklet, a double sided poseter and five art cards.

Yes: Symphonic Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Probably only diehard Yes fans and/or rabid completists will need to pick up this repackaging if they purchased the now long ago original Blu-ray release of this concert. Technical merits are generally solid (I'd rate audio better than video), and the addition of CDs and non disc swag may make this additionally appealing. Recommended.