THROWBACK HITS + ACOUSTIC FEELS = ONE AMAZING NIGHT IN CDO!

 

Get ready, Cagayan de Oro! Music Travel Love is bringing their world-famous acoustic sound to the City of Golden Friendship this June 26, 2026! 

Featuring members of the iconic The Moffatts, expect a night filled with nostalgic memories, sing-along favorites, and heartfelt performances that will take you back to the golden days of OPM and ‘90s pop. 

📍 Limketkai Atrium

🗓️ Friday • June 26, 2026

⏰ 8:00 PM

🎟️ Tickets are NOW AVAILABLE!

Bring your barkada, your special someone, or your whole family and enjoy a night of music, memories, and acoustic magic.

Don’t wait too long—this is one concert every ‘90s kid and music lover shouldn’t miss! 

Presented by: 90dB Production 

#MusicTravelLove #TheMoffatts #LiveInCDO #CDOConcert #Limketkai #AcousticVibes #90sThrowback #CagayanDeOro #ConcertPH 

Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie

 Alexander von Zemlinsky’s Lyrische Symphonie is a work where late Romantic expression and early modernist thinking remain in a fragile equilibrium.

Composed in 1922–23 to texts by Rabindranath Tagore, it is written for soprano, baritone and large orchestra. Across seven continuous movements it unfolds as a sequence of poetic monologues and indirect dialogues. The two vocal parts rarely meet in a traditional duet; instead they function as two inner perspectives that approach, reflect and gradually move apart again. The orchestra is richly detailed, constantly shifting between expansive lyricism and moments of almost transparent restraint.

This recording with Julia Varady, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the ORF Symphony Orchestra under Lothar Zagrosek highlights that duality clearly. Varady’s soprano is focused and controlled, avoiding overt sentimentality, while Fischer-Dieskau brings extreme attention to text and nuance, shaping each phrase with psychological precision. The result is less a continuous symphonic arc than a sequence of carefully articulated emotional states.

Zemlinsky’s position in his historical context is essential here. Closely connected to Mahler, Schoenberg and early Berg, he shares their interest in psychological depth and expanded harmonic language. Yet he never abandons tonality completely. Instead, he stretches it to its expressive limits, creating a harmonic world that remains grounded but is constantly destabilized by chromatic tension and shifting orchestral colour.

This places him both inside and slightly outside the trajectory of the Second Viennese School. While Schoenberg and his circle move toward the breakdown of tonal hierarchy, Zemlinsky remains within a system where tonal centres still exist, but are increasingly fragile. That tension defines the Lyrische Symphonie: emotionally saturated, but structurally unsettled.

The recording was released on the label Orfeo, a Munich-based company known for its focus on historically important performances, often drawn from European radio archives. Orfeo has built a catalogue that emphasizes interpretative documents rather than studio perfection, frequently presenting major 20th-century repertoire in performances that carry strong historical and artistic significance.

In this interpretation, Zagrosek keeps the orchestral texture clear and well balanced, allowing both singers to remain in sharp focus. The result is a reading that maintains structural control while preserving the work’s underlying emotional instability.

All reactions:

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YUJA and MAHLER, a spectacular duo awaiting their next tour

"That’s a wrap on another fantastic tour with Yuja Wang who play-conducted Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2, Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1, and Tsfasman’s Jazz Suite.Yuja will be joining us again in September with maestro Teddy Abrams for Barber Piano Concerto, Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, Tsfasman’s Jazz Suite and more! We are already ready  see our website for more information!"

"Si conclude così un altro fantastico tour con Yuja Wang, che ha diretto il Concerto per pianoforte n. 2 di Prokofiev, il Concerto per pianoforte n. 1 di Chopin e la Jazz Suite di Tsfasman. Yuja si unirà di nuovo a noi a settembre con il maestro Teddy Abrams per il Concerto per pianoforte di Barber, il Concerto per pianoforte n. 3 di Prokofiev, la Jazz Suite di Tsfasman e molto altro! Siamo già pronti  visita il nostro sito web per maggiori informazioni!"

MCO

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Yunchan Lim. A Man of Few Words. But His Music! He Had So So Much to Express

by Nicolette Wong  April 12th, 2026

Last week, Yunchan Lim appeared in Hong Kong with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under the baton of Wilson Ng, bringing us his own take of the piano concerto in A minor by Robert Schumann. I sat up in my seat as soon as the piece started, because the way Lim conveyed the short introduction drew me in. I was fascinated not only by the slower tempo he took, but also by the way he made the opening chord progression sound like a resonant yet measured announcement. So often, this passage sounds frantic and is over before we know it, but Lim’s version felt like a real welcome as he invited us to join in his musical voyage.

Pianist Yunchan Lim with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields orchestra at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Photo: HKAF

Indeed, it was an eye-opening journey of discovery. What struck me most was his voicing. Musicians are expected to bring out top lines, good musicians provide a strong enough bass to support the melody, better musicians let interesting bass lines weave into melodic lines, and the best ones let countermelodies speak up so we hear a full conversation. And Lim? He brought out even the most subtle inner voices, conveying the clearest picture of how many layers there were in this piece and how they all worked together in creating this multicoloured soundscape. This, in addition to his carefully crafted phrasing, made the architecture of the work extremely clear. Moreover, I felt his rendition of this concerto was the most romantic version I have ever heard. Yes, the impulsiveness of Florestan and the dreaminess of Eusebius were there, but there was something else holding those two together, something deeper and perhaps more wholesome. It was romantic without being overtly passionate and ostentatious; it was the most sincere and intimate kind of romance.

Two nights later, I returned to the Cultural Centre Concert Hall expecting another odyssey. This time, Lim treated us to a new recital programme of his: the Schubert D major Sonata D.850 ‘Gasteiner’, paired with Scriabin’s Second, Third, and Fourth Sonatas. I really was transported to another world, so much that after I heard the flourish ending the last sonata, I felt that I was physically in a different realm, and my soul somewhere far, far away, until the crash of applause brought me back to reality and my soul back to my body. Lim’s sound was powerful without being harsh, his tonal palette was so refined and meticulously crafted, and his shaping so precise and carefully sculpted. It was apparent from both the concerto and these sonatas (as well as the encore of the Chopin A minor waltz) that Lim has his own understanding and interpretation of music. There is no display of pyrotechnics even when the music demands great technique, and there is no narcissism or self-indulgence in his phrasing, nor in his way of taking time. Rather, Lim lives for music: he does not play to please others, he does not play in order to show others what a great musician he is, he does not play for the stage. On the contrary, he puts music on a pedestal, and he is merely its servant.  

Being able to watch Lim play was also mesmerising in another way. His body was so fluid – sometimes he rose tall, sometimes he was hunched over with his head loosely hanging from his neck, sometimes his torso was twisted such that his right shoulder and arm were much closer to the keyboard than his left side. I am no expert when it comes to body mechanics, but it is evident that all these movements, whilst being completely organic and not at all superfluous, must impact his sound production. On a superficial level, it goes to show how profoundly Lim himself and his music have fused together as one.

As I observed him taking his bows, I chuckled to myself. The conundrum that is Yunchan Lim stared me in the face: here was a great artist whose musical maturity and intellect suggest someone way beyond his twenties, yet he carries with him an innocence and hopefulness that exude a certain youthfulness. At the piano, he is a master in control; yet one cannot help noticing the boyishness and humility in his stage presence. How lucky we are that we still have decades and decades of watching this extraordinary artist blossom!

Rachmaninoff’s Last Student: 98-Year-Old Pianist Ruth Slenczynska

 by Emily E. Hogstad  October 26th, 2023

Ruth Slenczysnka must be one of the most interesting pianists alive today. She certainly has a story unlike any other: she studied piano with Rachmaninoff as a little girl – became an international musical sensation – abandoned her performing career – returned to it after a divorce – played for presidents – dueted with Harry Truman – spent a long career as an educator – and just last year put out an acclaimed album for the Decca label. And that’s barely scratching the surface of her list of accomplishments!

Ruth Slenczynska © Meredith Truax/PA

Here are thirteen facts about the incredible, inspiring life and career of pianist Ruth Slenczynska:

1. Ruth Slenczynska was born on 15 January 1925 in Sacramento, California, to a Polish violinist named Joseph and his wife. Joseph had been a leader at the Warsaw Conservatory before emigrating, but he was deeply frustrated that his performing career had never blossomed in the way he’d hoped it would. He became obsessed with living vicariously through his gifted daughter.

2. Joseph abused Ruth. When she was just a toddler, he implemented a strict study routine. Eventually, she was forced to play nine hours a day. She told CBS This Morning in 2022, “When I was practicing, and hearing from the street my sisters’ calls as they were playing with other kids, I wanted to be one of those kids who played. And if I didn’t practice, I was chased around the apartment with a stick.”

Pianist Ruth Slenczynska on her life in music   

3. By the age of four, they’d relocated to Europe so that she could access the best teachers and rub shoulders with the most influential musicians of the day. The list of pianists who young Ruth Slenczynska studied with or was mentored by is dizzying, and includes Schnabel, Cortot, and Hofmann.

4. She gave her first concert at four, her recital debut at the age of six in Berlin, and her orchestral debut at eleven in Paris. Not surprisingly, she was hailed in the press as the second coming of Mozart.

A Five Year Old Prodigy (1930)   

5. In 1933, when she was only nine years old, she filled in for Sergei Rachmaninoff when he was indisposed, duplicating his program. Afterward, he called her and invited her to play for him. Understandably, she was terrified. He calmed her down by showing her a picture of his motorboat and imitating the noise of its engines, and she was able to play for him. In gratitude, he gifted her a little Fabergé egg, which even today she wears as a necklace. She spent two years learning from him.

8-year-old Ruth Slenczynski makes her American debut in a piano recital in New York, Nov. 13, 1933 © WNYC

6. She performed for – and played with – President Harry Truman, who was an amateur pianist himself. When the interviewer on This Morning asked her how playing with Truman was, she laughed and said, “Good! Really good! And he was so personable… I thought he played very musically.” Later in her career, she also performed for Kennedy, Carter, and Reagan.

7. When she was fifteen, the pressure of a performing career got to be too much. She gave it up, ran away from home a few years later, and enrolled at the University of California. In 1944, the year she turned nineteen, she met and married a fellow student named George Born. They stayed together until 1953, when they were divorced.

8. In order to make ends meet as a newly single woman, Slenczynska began teaching piano, and eventually she returned to the concert platform after an absence that had lasted for more than a decade.

Ruth Slenczynska talks and plays two Rachmaninoff Preludes (1963)  

9. She wrote a memoir in 1957 titled Forbidden Childhood about the abuse she’d endured as a child. A few years later, she penned a second book, this one called Music at Your Fingertips: Aspects of Pianoforte Technique.

10. In 1964, she joined the staff of Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, a town just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri. There she met a political science professor named Dr. James Kerr. A few years later, she married him. Decades later, she referred to him as the love of her life. He died in 2001. They never had any children.

Ruth Slenczynska, c. 1957

11. One of her students, a pianist and teacher named Shelly Moorman-Stahlman, welcomed Slenczynska into her family. According to This Morning, Moorman-Stahlman and her husband welcomed Slenczynska into their home, and today they all live together in Pennsylvania.

12. Slenczynska released her beautiful album “My Life in Music” on the Decca label in 2022, at the age of 97, sixty years after she last recorded with them. It features lovely, touching performances of music by Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Bach, Debussy, and Barber (a friend!).  

13. When she was doing press for the new album, she told NPR, “You don’t become a pianist until you’re past the age of 60. And then you should have something to say that’s worthwhile. If you don’t, forget it.” For over ninety years, Ruth Slenczynska has always had something to say.