For those unaware, Esther Yoo, one of the world’s leading violinists, celebrates Valentine’s Day with the release of Love Symposium, her most personal album yet, available February 12th, 2026 on Deutsche Grammophon.

The centerpiece of the album, which features London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra led by the preeminent conductor Long Yu—the most powerful figure in China’s classical music scene—is the Serenade after Plato’s Symposium, one of Bernstein’s most lyrical and enduring orchestral works.

Each of Yoo’s selections for Love Symposium is a portrait of a different kind of love — a reflection of love in all its guises, from the philosophical ideas found in the Symposium to the love of nature, family, friends, significant others, and, most importantly, “the ever-evolving love we learn to give ourselves,” according to the program note by the London-based Yoo, the RPO’s first artist-in-residence.

“We often think of love in music as something purely romantic and idealized,” Yoo states, “but I wanted to create a sound world where we experience real love — the blissfully transcendent, the powerfully intoxicating, the gut-wrenchingly painful, and everything in between.”

LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”)
1) I. Phaedrus - Pausanias: Lento - Allegro marcato (07:05)
2) II. Aristophanes: Allegretto (05:15)
3) III. Erixymachus: Presto (01:36)
4) IV. Agathon: Adagio (07:33)
5) V. Socrates – Alcibiades: Molto tenuto – Allegro molto vivace (11:03)

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
6) The Lark Ascending (15:25)

GUSTAV MAHLER
7) Adagietto From Symphony No.5, new chamber arrangement by Iain Farrington (09:12)

EDWARD ELGAR
8) Salut d’Amour (03:31)

PASEK & PAUL
9) Never Enough, from “The Greatest Showman,” new arrangement by Iain Farrington (03:59)

The set opens on the BERNSTEIN work Serenade (after Plato’s “Symposium”); and first brings us the agile Phaedrus - Pausanias: Lento - Allegro marcato before sliding into the perky grandeur of Aristophanes: Allegretto, the sprightly Erixymachus: Presto, with the work rounding out on the veritably shimmering Agathon: Adagio and the delicate elegance of Socrates – Alcibiades: Molto tenuto – Allegro molto vivace.

Along next is VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’ highly emotive, astutely textured and dutifully mastered The Lark Ascending; then we get MAHLER’s more stoically cultured, rigid, yet pliable Adagietto From Symphony No.5, new chamber arrangement by Iain Farrington; before the music rounds out on ELGAR’s simply enchanting Salut d’Amour, closing on PASEK & PAUL’s affecting work of musical rt Never Enough, from “The Greatest Showman,” new arrangement by Iain Farrington.

“As I share these intimate musings through music, I invite you to open your own heart and mind to the love that has shaped you. Whether it has brought you joy or sorrow, laughter or tears, healing or heartbreak, how beautiful it is that we can all connect through love—across time, experience, and music.”

Musicians:
Esther Yoo, violin
Long Yu, conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Esther Yoo - Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 (Arr. Iain Farrington) [Official Video]

Official Apple Music Purchase Link