Capella Edina
Usher Hall, 16/1/ 2025
Capella Edina, Conductor, Luis Schmidt
I had heard about the creation of a new orchestra for Edinburgh, Capella Edina, and I was intrigued enough to go along to the Usher Hall on Thursday 16th January for its first concert. Initial observations were not auspicious, as only a hundred or so seats had been sold in a hall with a capacity of 2,200, and only the Stalls were open. There had been almost no publicity beforehand, and the programme was esoteric to say the least. Starting with Erich Korngold’s title music from the 1942 film ‘King’s Row’, the rest of the first half was given over to Anton Bruckner’s wonderful but famously ‘difficult’ 6th Symphony. After the interval, we heard the orchestral suite from ‘Star Wars’ by John Williams and a newly commissioned piece, called ‘Orbit/Adrift’, by James Clay.
The founder of the orchestra, a 20 year old German student, Luis Schmidt, was also the conductor, and he arrived on the podium wearing a sort of uniform, as if from the Prussian or Austro-Hungarian Empires. The orchestra, formally dressed in black tie for the men and black trouser suits for the ladies, were apparently picked from freelancers from across Scotland, but their identities were not divulged to us, not even the leader, whose solo playing in the John Williams was exemplary. The sound from the orchestra was splendid, especially the brass section, which had a lot to do, particularly in the Bruckner and the Williams, and given that it clearly was a scratch band, this first showing of Capella Edina demonstrated a professional standard of high quality.
It seems that our capital city has never had a fully professional symphony orchestra since 1937, since the RSNO and BBCSSO are based in Glasgow, and the SCO, although recently moving into 19th and 20th century repertoire, is still the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Whether a freelance orchestra, directed by a student conductor, can fill the gap is open to question, but the programme for the four concert season throughout 2025, with sponsorship and a committee in place, with a composer in residence and a motto, ‘United by Passion for Music’, demonstrates ambition at least.
The concert began with a short dramatic prelude in the form of Korngold’s film music for ‘King’ s Row’, a small town melodrama featuring Ronald Reagan and Anne Sheridan. This established the orchestra’s credentials as worth hearing, and the huge undertaking that is Bruckner’s 6th Symphony tested them to the limits. We have been denied any Bruckner in Edinburgh for ages, a shocking lack made even more annoying since 2024 was the bicentenary of his birth. Apparently, he is not ‘popular’ these days, to which I can only reply that his popularity is not enhanced by no-one playing his music. I fell in love with Bruckner at an early age, as his symphonies featured in many Edinburgh International Festivals in the 1970s, with great conductors like Haitink, Abbado, Gibson and Wand delighting us with their mastery of the great Austrian. I went to many Bruckner symphony concerts here in the Usher Hall with my schoolfriend, Donald Runnicles, who now, 50 years later, is acclaimed as one of the greatest Bruckner conductors in the world.
Luis Schmidt is not in that league, but his unfussy conducting and clear beat allowed Capella Edina to breathe life into the 6th, and the blazing intensity of the brass in particular sounded wonderful in the big hall. There were no deep insights to the interpretation, but it was simply marvellous to sit back and listen to the genius of the deeply devout Austrian organist Bruckner, who somehow conjured unbelievable sounds out of the symphony orchestra. I was amused to read that, in the programme notes, the view of Eduard Hanslick was quoted in favour of the 6th Symphony - “clever, original and even inspired moments”. These were almost certainly the only good things Hanslick ever wrote about Bruckner, whose music he detested!
The programme notes tried to explain why the heart of the concert was given over to film music, the orchestral suite compiled by John Williams from his music for ‘Star Wars.’ Instead of putting a major Romantic symphony in pole position, the suggestion was that both Korngold and Bruckner were the inspiration for the John Williams piece, and that was why it was placed at the centre of the concert. This didn’t seem to make much sense to me, and then to split up the Williams piece with a new composition seemed even odder. James Clay’s work, ‘Orbit/Adrift’, came over as a pleasant orchestral soundscape, going nowhere in particular and rather overstaying its welcome but not frightening the horses. It came between Yoda’s theme and the finale of the suite, and ‘unremarkable it seemed to be.’
I don’t know quite what to say about this enterprise. It would be great to have a full-time symphony orchestra in Edinburgh, but in the present financial climate, that seems unlikely. Certainly, if Capella Edina is to survive, it needs to maximise its publicity, and definitely not schedule concerts in the Usher Hall which clash with the very popular SCO Thursday series of concerts. It needs to decide what its core repertoire is. The next advertised concerts feature film music, Viennese music and Elgar’s Enigma Variations, alongside unknown other music. The hordes are unlikely to be battering at the doors unless people are made aware of the concerts.
We have great musicians here in Scotland. Whether Capella Edina can seriously offer them much more work is indeed an enigma.
