Han Soo-jin's Vivaldi perspective rooted in seaside souvenirs of Isle of Man

The Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland, holds special musical memories for violinist Han Soo-jin, 40. Born in Busan, Han moved to Britain with her parents at age 2 and spent the first three and a half years of her childhood on the island.

Surrounded by meadows and the sea, it was also where she first heard Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons." That memory has now found its way into her recently released second album, "The Four Seasons," her first album featuring a concerto with an orchestra. She recorded it with the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) last September at London's Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded their music.

During a press conference on Wednesday at Sounds S in Yongsan District, Seoul, Han said, "Some people might wonder why I chose Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons,' which has been performed so often and has so many acclaimed recordings."

"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.

For Han, "The Four Seasons" represents the connection between nature and music in her childhood. She said she loved the sea so much that "sea" was reportedly the first word she said after "Mom" and "Dad." On the Isle of Man, she said, "I felt nature through music and listened to music through nature."

That experience is also closely tied to her identity. "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 also features Astor Piazzolla's "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires." Han said, "If Vivaldi paints landscapes in nature, Piazzolla seems to portray the four seasons within the human heart."

"It was meaningful to work on the two 'Four Seasons' because I felt as if they were having a conversation with each other," she said.

The ECO, which began as the Goldsbrough Orchestra in 1948 and has performed under its current name since 1960, has been supported by King Charles III since 1977, when he was still the Prince of Wales. The orchestra is returning to Korea for the first time in 15 years for concerts with Han. The tour will visit Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, on Oct. 24, Incheon on Oct. 25, Daegu on Oct. 28 and Seoul on Oct. 30. The program includes Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" with Han as soloist, Mozart's "Divertimento in D Major," Rossini's "String Sonata No. 1" and Britten's "Simple Symphony."

Han first gained recognition in 2001 when, at age 15, she became the first Korean to win second prize at the International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Poland. She was born with impaired hearing in her left ear and later underwent surgery for a temporomandibular joint disorder in her mid-20s. It took her six years to recover, including three years during which she could not play her instrument.

But she does not describe the experience simply as a story of "overcoming adversity." During the years when she had to put down her instrument for treatment and give up performing, she said she instead came to realize how much she loved music and what a great blessing it was to live as a musician.

That experience is also connected to the music she makes today.

"People tell me that my sound is different, and I wonder if it's because I hear differently due to the hearing loss in one ear, which results in a different sound," she said. "Having a unique sound is an advantage for a musician. Perhaps what seemed like a disadvantage was actually a hidden blessing for me."

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.