Matthew Curtis: Christmas Rush

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.