Han Soo-jin ties Vivaldi album to childhood by the sea

Violinist Han Soo-jin said her new album, “The Four Seasons,” draws on childhood memories of nature and music from the Isle of Man, The Korea Times reported.

The album, Han’s second, is her first concerto recording with an orchestra and pairs Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” with Astor Piazzolla’s “The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.”

Han, 40, discussed the album at a press conference Wednesday at Sounds S in Yongsan District, Seoul, according to The Korea Times. She was born in Busan and moved to Britain with her parents at age 2, spending the first three and a half years of her childhood on the Isle of Man.

“Some people might wonder why I chose Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons,' which has been performed so often and has so many acclaimed recordings,” Han, a violinist, said, according to The Korea Times. “But I believe that even when performers remain faithful to the same score, the music that emerges after passing through each performer's prism inevitably sounds different,” she said.

Han first heard Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” on the Isle of Man, The Korea Times reported. “I felt nature through music and listened to music through nature,” Han said. “When I play Vivaldi, I feel that I'm not so much describing nature as becoming part of nature and playing,” she said.

The album was recorded last September with the English Chamber Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London, according to The Korea Times. The orchestra, which began as the Goldsbrough Orchestra in 1948 and took its current name in 1960, is returning to Korea for the first time in 15 years for concerts with Han.

The tour is scheduled for Tongyeong on Oct. 24, Incheon on Oct. 25, Daegu on Oct. 28 and Seoul on Oct. 30, The Korea Times reported. Han said the pairing of Vivaldi and Piazzolla gave the project its own dialogue: “If Vivaldi paints landscapes in nature, Piazzolla seems to portray the four seasons within the human heart.”

Han, who was born with impaired hearing in her left ear and later spent six years recovering from temporomandibular joint disorder surgery, told The Korea Times that her hearing may have shaped her sound: “Having a unique sound is an advantage for a musician. Perhaps what seemed like a disadvantage was actually a hidden blessing for me.”