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New Album! Esther Yoo - Love Symposium
Posted February 13, 2026
Esther Yoo
Love Symposium
Esther Yoo, violin
Long Yu, conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Release date: February 12, 2026
Anchored by Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), a philosophical meditation on love, this album traverses love in its many guises through works such as Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending.
Acclaimed for her exquisite timbre, intellectual depth, and crystalline technique, violinist Esther Yoo released her new album, Love Symposium, on February 12, 2026. Marking her fourth release under the Deutsche Grammophon label, this project signals a deliberate departure from the rigorous, concerto-driven focus of her previous recordings. Instead, Yoo presents a meticulously curated “special album” dedicated to a multifaceted exploration of love.
Recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Long Yu, the repertoire is centered on Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium). The album also features a chamber arrangement of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, “Never Enough” from the film The Greatest Showman, and Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending.
The collaboration carries profound personal resonance. Since her appointment as the Royal Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence in 2018, Yoo has fostered a deep artistic bond with the ensemble through numerous performances. “To record these works with an orchestra I consider family was a profoundly meaningful experience,” she reflects.
At the heart of the album lies Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium). Plato’s original text is a philosophical dialogue in which several thinkers offer differing perspectives on love: Aristophanes’ myth of humanity as a once-unified being split in two, with love as the search for the lost half; Socrates’ notion of love not as possession but as longing; and the broader idea of love not merely as emotion but as a force that leads humankind toward higher truth. Inspired by these ideas, Bernstein composed the Serenade for solo violin and small orchestra, as a series of musical dialogues in which instruments respond to one another. As Esther Yoo explains, “Each movement encompasses a different dimension of love—from idealized vision and physical harmony to innocence and even its darker, demonic aspects. If Plato’s Symposium is a discussion and analysis of love, Bernstein’s Serenade allows us to feel it.”
The chamber version of the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, released in advance on January 8, is an indispensable entry in any musical meditation on love. Often described as Mahler’s love letter to his wife, Alma, the piece unfolds with a beauty in which time itself seems to stand still. Reflecting on the arrangement, Yoo notes: “In reimagining such a universally known work, we consciously took a certain risk, performing it with just nine players and without a conductor. It may sound familiar, yet fresh.”
Another highlight is the reimagined arrangement of “Never Enough.” In its original context in The Greatest Showman, the song stands as a solitary confession of love voiced from a stage of blinding splendor. Its core sentiment—“all the spotlight and applause will never be enough without you”—is beautifully transfigured here through Yoo’s violin and a sumptuous orchestral setting.
Speaking about the album, Yoo shares: “In every sense, this is an album that I have poured my heart into,” says Yoo. “It reflects the many forms of love I have encountered in my own life, but it ultimately gestures toward something larger: the idea that love is eternal.”
Beyond the recording studio, Yoo’s career continues to evolve as an educator, having joined the faculty of the Royal College of Music in London last autumn.
◆ Streaming link ◆
◆ 2026 Tours w/ Bernstein ‘Serenade’ ◆
February 20 & 21 Orquestra Sinfónica de Castilla y León Valladolid, Spain More Info
UK Tour with Philharmonia Orchestra, Marin Alsop
November 18 Basingstoke
November 19 London
November 20 Newcastle
November 22 Birmingham