For people who have spent their
days and evenings in London in the run-up to Christmas many will empathise with
Matthew Curtis’s (b.1959) delightfully vibrant march Christmas Rush. For
me, it brings mental pictures of frosty evenings in Oxford Street or
Knightsbridge. Some of the big-name department stores may have gone – think of
Dickins and Jones, Marshall and Snelgrove, Robinson and Cleaver as well as the
fictional Grace Brothers. On the other hand, for over 20 years, I used to visit
Harrods and Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly during
December. In the latter, the window displays were truly magical. Take a Black hackney
cab along Regent Street and see the lights and the shoppers rushing from store to store
to purchase last minute presents and stocking fillers. London Buses queue from
end to end of Piccadilly bringing folk in from suburbs east and west. Then there
are the theatregoers: possibly going to see the annual performance of The
Nutcracker or Peter Pan. And not forgetting those out for a pre-Christmas
dinner, a last convivial meal with their friends and colleagues before
heading back to the Shires and beyond. Lovers may be seen walking along the
Embankment or strolling through St James’s Park in the early evening. Possibly
a few are on their way to a Carol Service, ensuring they do not forget what the
Season is about. And maybe someone is just out to the pub for a quiet pint.
Rob Barnett in his review of Matthew
Curtis’s Christmas Rush for MusicWeb International (October 2011) has
well-described this short piece: ‘[it] roars upwards and bustles among the
best. It evokes smiling crowds with none of the contemporary heartless
commercialism.’
The March opens with a busy tune,
just like various exemplars by Eric Coates. This is characterised by several elements
which include passages for brass and romantic sounding strings. Soon the trio is
heard for the first time. It is faster than one might expect once again nodding
to Coates rather than Elgar or Walton. Some brass fanfares lead back to the opening
section, before the march closes with a large-scale restatement of the big tune,
followed by a dramatic coda. Christmas Rush is well orchestrated with much
percussion including bells.
The liner notes of the Naxos recording
of this work explains that the music ‘captures the spirit of anticipation
unique to the season without references to any carols, although the bridge
linking the march to the trio section has an air of ‘’Deck the Halls about it.’
Barry Hodgson, writing an
introduction for the YouTube upload of Christmas Rush, has suggested
that ‘Most of us try to avoid last minute Christmas shopping, but sometimes it
is unavoidable. That vital ingredient for the Christmas dinner or a forgotten
present can send us scurrying to put things right. This is the image
represented by Matthew Curtis's energetic [march]’.
The composer has apparently suggested
that his Christmas Rush has filled a gap in the repertoire of British
Light Music. In fact, it has all the buoyancy of music written by Eric Coates
himself. I guess Curtis’s piece could feature as the concluding number of a
putative London Christmas Eve Suite.
Finally, I was unable to find a
date of composition for this piece. WorldCat does not give an entry for a published
score.
Matthew Curtis’s Christmas
Rush can be heard on Naxos 8.572744 and on Campion Cameo 2085. This latter
has been uploaded to YouTube.
It is played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia conducted by Gavin Sutherland.
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