Jerry Goldsmith received the biggest assignment of his career up to that point when in 1966 Alex North decided The Sand Pebbles was troublingly violent and suggested the younger composer to director Robert Wise as the man for the job. And he wrote his biggest score. He'd already written several great scores by then (still aged only 37) but it was The Sand Pebbles that really announced him as one of the foremost presences on the film music stage, a position he has held throughout the almost-forty years that have since passed.

The film is set on an American gunboat, the San Pablo (hence the title), on the Yangtze River during China's turbulent revolution of the mid-1920s. It's a superb film, featuring probably Steve McQueen's finest performance (and, incredibly, the only one to net him an Oscar nomination), along with Richard Attenborough and Richard Crenna. No expense was spared, and it shows: the production design is exquisite and the recreation of China (in Hong Kong, ironically enough) painstaking. The film is harrowing at times, frequently very moving and its Vietnam allegory makes it one of the most intelligent war movies made up to that point.

It's a big score, in every sense. The film featured a musical overture (as all big productions did in those days - if only the tradition had continued - nowadays we're lucky to even get a proper musical opening title) and it is surely one of Goldsmith's strongest pieces. Its impact has probably been watered-down by the inclusion of a somewhat dated jazz version in Goldsmith's concert "Motion Picture Medley", heard countless times through the years, but there is nothing vaguely watered-down about it in its original form. In fact, in either of its original forms: this album presents two completely different versions of the piece, both very strong - the opening cue was recorded specially for the original album, and is centred around Goldsmith's beautiful love theme; the second (the one actually featured with the film, presented here as one of two bonus tracks) is based around a strident, bold Chinese theme which filters its way into many tracks in the score.

There are essentially three sides to the score: the love music, often just as tragic as other pieces are romantic; the ethnic music; and some of the most ballsy action music in history. (Is it me, or is all the most ballsy action music in history composed by Goldsmith?) The love music gets some of its most beautiful airing in "The Wedding", an extended piece bizarrely omitted from the original album (never issued on CD); not the full-on romance being written by most of Goldsmith's peers at the time, but gentle, timid almost, with subtle orchestration bringing out the exquisite instrumental detail and careful nuance of the composer's writing.

Highlights of the action music are far too numerous to go through each one, but here are a couple. Firstly (and, to anyone who has heard the album, obviously) comes "Repel Boarders", a piece of incredible intensity - it's remarkable really to hear the foundations of so much of Goldsmith's action music of the future, but the raw materials are all there. The other highlight is "My Secret", whose power cannot be underestimated. A truly thrilling piano ostinato gets pounding accompaniment from various ethnic percussion instruments to give the kind of rhythmic excitement that only Goldsmith really delivers.

"Death of a Thousand Cuts" is one of the most tragic pieces of film music you'll ever hear (accompanying one of the most tragic and genuinely disturbing scenes I've ever seen in a film). One of the gunboat's Chinese crewmembers is tortured on shore by his countrymen, in front of his crewmates. McQueen's character, realising an unpleasant death is certain, takes it upon himself to shoot and kill his colleague in an act of pity.

The most incredible thing really is how young Goldsmith was when he wrote it. I'm hard pressed to think of any film composers working on major films who are still in their thirties, let alone ones who can bless us (and their films) with scores as complex and mature as this one. But Goldsmith impresses on every level with this score: each track is a self-contained piece of music that functions just as well without the film as with it.

This release from the Varèse Sarabande CD Club is surely the greatest film music release of 2002. They previously issued a re-recording with Goldsmith conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra which, with hindsight, is probably the worst of their series of re-recordings: the cue selection, the acoustic dynamic and even elements of the performance just weren't suited for the score. Goldsmith chose to leave off most of the action music and focus on the romantic material, a mistake for sure. Anyone whose first experience of the score was that album would be likely to have been put off, but please don't be: scores like this tend to come along once in a generation, and if you only buy one Varèse CD Club release from 2002, this is the one to get. Robert Townson's liner notes are detailed and interesting, and sound quality (with the ironic exception of "Repel Boarders", which was damaged so can only be presented in mono) is top-notch. And to top it all, quite simply, it's one of the finest examples of film music ever made.