A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Jerry Goldsmith commenced important relationships with two directors in 1990.  While his collaborations with Paul Verhoeven are often (rightly) cited for their quality, his music for Fred Schepisi is frequently ignored by even the composer's fans.  This is very unfortunate because, while the scores are certainly not "big", the director provided the composer with essentially a blank canvas on which to paint (he does not use temp tracks) and provided him with two of the best, most intelligent films he scored during the decade in The Russia House and Six Degrees of Separation.

The Russia House is not the sort of score that leaps out and grabs your attention, it's the sort that crawls from beneath and you can easily miss its qualities.  For the tale of cold war spying starring Sean Connery, based on John le Carre's novel, Goldsmith took the unusual decision to go with a very jazzy, moody, sexy score somewhat in the mould of something like John Barry's Body Heat, but without the burning sexuality.  The main theme - allegedly first written for Oliver Stone's Wall Street, and then certainly used in Alien Nation, two scores that didn't end up being used in their films - is superb, an attractive melody given a moody performance by Branford Marsalis, accompanied by Mike Lang's piano.  It's a very different beast here than the romantic all-strings arrangement Goldsmith performs in concerts.

"Introductions" brings in the second main theme, a subtle little piece for bass which functions nicely both as a suspense motif and a binding gel between different sections of the score.  Finally comes a swifter, pacier theme in "The Conversation", which also features a few touches echoing the movie's locale.  The great theme is reprised to fine effect in "The Meeting", a piece full of espionage intrigue.  There is also a vocal version of the main theme, with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, "Alone in the World", sung by Patti Austin, which is actually very good.

The Russia House makes for a pleasant listen, fairly undemanding, but quite rewarding.  It's a surprisingly long album - one of the longest Goldsmith albums to have been put out at that point - and seems an odd score for such extended treatment on CD.  It's unbelievably ironic that a score like this would get an hour-long CD when considerably more complex and varied works were lucky to get 35 minutes at the same time.  In any case, the CD is recommended for the lighter side of Goldsmith.

Tracks

1. Katya (3:57)
2. Introductions (3:12)
3. The Conversation (4:13)
4. Training (2:01)
5. Katya and Barley (2:32)
6. First Name, Yakov (2:53)
7. Bon Voyage (2:11)
8. The Meeting (3:59)
9. I'm With You / What Is This Thing Called Love? (2:39)
10. Alone in the World Patti Austin (4:09)
11. The Gift (2:34)
12. Full Marks (2:27)
13. Barley's Love (3:24)
14. My Only Country (4:34)
15. Crossing Over (4:13)
16. The Deal (4:09)
17. The Family Arrives (7:38)