Ramsay Postgraduate Scholars encounter art and beauty in London
Friday 3 November 2023: As part of the Ramsay Centre’s efforts to help forge connections between its postgraduate scholars overseas, a series of events were planned recently for scholars studying in the UK.
On October 7 and 8, the Ramsay Centre hosted a series of London scholar events centred around music and art: a guided tour and organ recital at All Saints, Margaret Street, and a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) at the Barbican Centre.
The LSO performed orchestral showpieces by Maurice Ravel and Sergei Rachmaninoff alongside Fazil Say’s Violin Concerto. The All Saints tour and recital was led by Hamish Wagstaff, the church’s organist, and a 2022 Ramsay Scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, who has been appointed to be the next Organ Scholar at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The group was joined and led by our Postgraduate Manager Naomi Spinks.
2023 Ramsay Postgraduate Scholar Rafael (Ardi) Echevarria is a musicologist and musical theorist specialising in nineteenth-century musical form and musicology’s disciplinary debates. He is studying a PhD in Music at Durham University, a member of the prestigious Russell group, the UK’s own ‘Ivy League’.
Ardi travelled to London for the events and said both were “…rich with cultural history and artistic splendour” and “excellent opportunities to reconnect with fellow Ramsay Scholars and make new connections.”
Ardi further reflected:
“All Saints Church directly engages the beautiful. Designed by William Butterfield in the 1850s, All Saints is a landmark of the Victorian era’s Oxford movement, which reintroduced Catholic elements into Anglicanism and emphasised the relationship between beauty and liturgical worship. In contrast to its bustling surrounds, the church’s Gothic architecture creates a uniquely solemn and reverent atmosphere. Approaching the church gradually reveals its spire towering above the London skyline and upon entering, one is surrounded by exquisite stained-glass windows and tile friezes of biblical stories and figures.
This architectural immersion is reinforced by the organ, which is carefully hidden around the altar and its wall of saints. This concealment masks the instrument’s gargantuan scale – which rivals those at much larger churches such as St. Paul’s Cathedral – and creates an evocative surround sound effect. The organ’s rich orchestral colour palette, owing to its nineteenth-century origins, is a unique characteristic preserved in the face of twentieth-century developments. These intricate subtleties were showcased in Wagstaff’s recital, featuring Herbert Howells’s Rhapsody in C♯ minor, Frank Bridge’s Allegretto grazioso, and Louis Vierne’s ‘Final’ from Organ Symphony No. 3. The organ transformed into different instruments as it moved between delicate softness and transcendent grandeur, enveloping us in an ethereal aural landscape.
Art in all its different guises was also elevated in the LSO concert. All three works were unified by dance, with Ravel’s La valse and Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances demonstrating how classical dances, such as the waltz, are transformed by the twentieth-century ravages of war and death. Dance is also central to Say’s Violin Concerto based on the One Thousand and One Nights folk tales, especially the dancer Scheherazade who had previously inspired Ravel and Rimsky-Korsakov’s works of the same name. Virtuosically performed by Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Say’s concerto deftly explores Scheherazade’s story through a series of tableaux that mingle the Western orchestra with Turkish instruments and sounds. Conducted by Antonio Pappano, who joins the LSO from the Royal Opera House, these vibrant, dramatic works were an excellent synthesis of different art forms.
Both events highlighted a unique aspect of the Ramsay Centre’s project and values: the emphasis on cultural exchange and enrichment for comprehensive community building. The combination of architecture, music, and dance served as a valuable nexus for conversing with peers while orientated towards a higher cause. This deep dialogue with one’s artistic heritage helped strengthen existing relationships and lay the foundation for future growth and development.”
Interested in learning more about the Centre’s Postgraduate Scholarships? Visit: https://www.ramsaycentre.org/scholarships-courses/postgraduate-scholarships/
Media contact: Sarah Switzer 0407 816 098 / sarah.switzer@ramsaycentre.org