Candy Crush Soda Saga gets a classical power-up with London Symphony Orchestra soundtrack

9 November 2014, 12:08 | Updated: 10 November 2014, 10:11

The multi-billion-dollar puzzle game Candy Crush Saga has a new orchestral soundtrack - and our Orchestra in the City of London was playing it.

Games developer King Digital Entertainment has struggled to create new titles to match the epic success of Candy Crush Saga, which is thought to account for about half of the company's revenues. For its long-awaited sequel, Candy Crush Soda Saga, King has enhanced the graphics, gameplay and soundtrack. 

King’s in-house composer Johan Holmström told Classic FM: “The whole experience is crucial. The new game needed a more organic sound to bring the whole package together."

Although Holmström composes most of his Candy Crush pieces digitally, he said it would have been impossible to create the same quality for this new game without an orchestra like the LSO.

He added that working with Classic FM's Orchestra in the City of London was “a mind-blowing experience”. Holmström says working with such an large number of people was a huge task which took several weeks - and even necessitated a last-minute increase in the size of the orchestra.

A real highlight of the project was being able to use the iconic Abbey Road studios. Although he regrets not taking a team photo on the iconic zebra crossing, he noted he did get to use the same piano as the Beatles.

The LSO’s Principal Flute, Gareth Davies said: "It was great fun. I played the original game. Having a soundtrack recorded by a group of live musicians will really take Candy Crush Soda Saga to the next level."

The new game, complete with symphonic soundtrack, was soft-launched in May 2014 with the Facebook launch on 20 October and a mobile app to be released in December. One user has already said: “The graphics on this game rival next-gen graphics, and the soundtrack is brilliant.” 

Take a look behind the scenes at this incredible recording session