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Interview with Esther Yoo: Love Symposium
Music and love - these are two things that connect us all and allow us to relate without words. This is the idea at the heart of violinist Esther Yoo's new album, Love Symposium.
Violinist Esther Yoo. Photo by Je Won Kim.
"It's an exploration of the many different aspects and forms of love," Yoo told me in an interview in late January. "It's an invitation for listeners to experience a philosophical and an emotional discovery of love - through music."
From the beginning, music has provided an important source of connection for Yoo.
As a painfully shy child, "music was my most comfortable means of communication," she said. "Somehow I wasn't shy about being on stage, playing the violin or the piano for someone." For her, the violin best conveyed the range emotions that she wished to express.
Esther was born in New Jersey to parents who loved going to symphony concerts. Since she was an only child, they simply took her along, even as a toddler.
"The first orchestra I heard in my life was the New York Phil, so I was very spoiled!" she said. "I heard some great concerts at Lincoln Center at Carnegie Hall. I remember seeing Perlman, Midori, Sarah Chang... and so I discovered the violin through those concerts. And it wasn't just the violin soloists on stage, but also violinists of the orchestra - my focus was always on the violins."
While she had started piano lessons at age four, it's not surprising that she quickly developed a desire to play the violin, and that it soon eclipsed the piano.
"I did enjoy both instruments, but I ended up choosing the violin for couple reasons," she said. "One was that the instrument felt more natural to me, and I really love the sound of the violin." She also took to the learning environment of the Suzuki violin school - which she found encouraging and fun, learning in group settings with others kids and studying with a kindly teacher.
When she was six, the family moved to Brussels in Belgium for her father's work.
"As they had done in the U.S., my parents continued their routine of going to concerts and enjoying cultural experiences," Esther said. "Thanks to them, I got to enjoy the rich cultural history in Europe, and somehow felt more and more connected to music and the roots of classical music while I was in Europe."
While they were supposed to be in Europe for just a few years, "two, three years just kept on being extended, and I ended up staying on in Europe ever since," she said.
Her parents also continued supporting her passion for music. Yoo studied with Zakhar Bron, Ana Chumachenco, and Augustin Dumay. She made her concerto debut at age eight, and she won prizes in the Sibelius and Queen Elisabeth Competitions before even reaching the age of 20.
Now at age 31, "Love Symposium" is Yoo's first "concept" album, curated entirely by her. The central piece is Leonard Bernstein's 1954 "Serenade," based on Plato's Symposium, thus the album's name. It's a piece that Yoo played for the first time in her debut with the New York Philharmonic in 2024, and this November she will perform the work on a tour of the U.K. with the Philharmonia Orchestra, led by Marin Alsop. On the album she recorded the work with Long Yu and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she also recorded The Barber and Bruch Violin Concertos in 2023 and served as their first Artist-in-Residence in 2018.
The "Serenade" is based on the ancient Greek philosopher Plato's dialogue praising Eros, the god of love and desire, and what makes it special for Yoo is that "the piece feels so alive." It's a musical depiction of "people speaking, people having a conversation. And so everything is very vibrant, very brilliant."
BELOW: From the recording, Esther Yoo performs the third movement "Erixymachus. Presto" from Bernstein's Serenade, with Long Yu and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
The "Serenade" is also full of contrast - "the third movement is very fast paced, energetic, straightforward, in contrast with something like the fourth movement, which for me is my favorite movement, so gorgeous. And then, of course, the big duo with the cello in the final movement," she said. "There is so much to look forward to, whenever I am playing this piece."
Alongside the Bernstein is "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Salut d'Amour" by Edward Elgar and two new arrangements commissioned just the album by Ian Farrington: a chamber arrangement of the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, and an arrangement of the song "Never Enough" from the movie "The Greatest Showman."
BELOW: Esther Yoo performs the "Adagietto" from Mahler Symphony No. 5, arranged by Iain Farrington.
"It's an interesting collection of pieces, but there is a link- every piece reflects a different kind of love," Yoo said.
For example, for Yoo "The Lark Ascending" - inspired by the poem by George Meredith - expresses a love of nature, "loving what we have in the moment, and appreciating the beauty of natural things and things we might take for granted," Yoo said. It's also about a love for the beauty and ever-changing nature of each moment. Every experience of "The Lark" is a little different. "The bird is a little bit different, or the weather is a little bit different, or the tempo is a little bit different," Yoo said. "Going beyond that, when we think of a forest or a field or a lake, you could walk by those things every day and they will be different. Not only every day, but every second of each day, whether it's morning or evening. There's movement, there's energy, there's always something happening."
"Love a such a universal sentiment for everybody," Yoo said. "When we think of the love we experience in our lives, everyone comes with their own history and their own memories. It was nice to be able to put all that into into this album, into the music."
You might also like:
- I used to love playing violin. I still do
- Interview with Anne Akiko Meyers: Love, and Bernstein's 'Serenade'
- Review: Joshua Bell Performs Bernstein 'Serenade' with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
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