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| Goldsmith |
The Russia House: (Jerry Goldsmith) If a single
film and its music could define the word "bittersweet" better than any
other,
The Russia House would be the champion example. The
potentially explosive adaptation of John LeCarre's novel needs no
introduction to the concepts of depression and oppression, and despite
the story's famously distraught conclusion, audiences were seemingly
unprepared for either the gloom of the story or the distorted and
confusing ending of its adaptation. The film fell short of all
expectations at the time, though the lead performances by Sean Connery
and Michelle Pfeiffer were well enough praised. The espionage story was
the first major American production ever to be shot on location in the
former Soviet Union, with a sharp, somewhat technological edge driving
its fear factor. Perhaps the most critical element of
The Russia
House is its extremely memorable soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith, a
score with about as much frustration and depression built into the
circumstances of its creation as the story of
The Russia House
itself. Goldsmith first conjured the beautiful theme for this film in
1987 for
Wall Street, and when he left that film due to creative
differences with the filmmakers, he adapted the melody into his
electronic score for
Alien Nation the following year. Being that
the 1988 alien/cop drama was so wretchedly awful, however, Goldsmith
wasn't particularly disappointed when his score was completely rejected
from the finished product. His bold and longing love theme for
Alien
Nation was realized in that film's cue "The Wedding," but never did
it truly take flight until it was altered slightly, improving its
romantic flow in three places, and handed to an accomplished jazz trio
for
The Russia House in 1990. Goldsmith's approach to the genuine
locale was countered by an interestingly American approach to scoring
the visuals, infusing a slight edge of old-style noir into the picture.
He took a chance by composing an almost exclusively jazzy atmosphere
outside of the pure suspense sequences, building off of the Barley
(Connery) character's performance of the saxophone in the film.
To address the concept of espionage, and not to mention
Connery himself, Goldsmith inserts a slight touch of James Bond's
mechanical instrumentation, making restrained but smart use of his
library of synthetic rhythm-setters. To address the danger of the
romance, he offers us a glimpse of the ominously nervous strings that
audiences would eventually hear in full for
Basic Instinct. The
most surprising aspect of the score for
The Russia House is its
simplicity in instrumentation and repetition. It's hard to imagine how a
score of this minuscule size and scope could be so overwhelming in its
appeal. That might say something about Goldsmith's raw talent, and
perhaps it speaks to three years of development on the concepts. His
base elements are simple; a jazz trio handles the majority of the themes
and underscore, with saxophone performances by Branford Marsalis (both
scripted and improvised) that are nothing short of spectacular. Never
once does he quiver unintentionally or even slightly miss a note.
Perfection is bliss. Michael Lang is equally renown for his fabulous
piano performances, and he delicately establishes an elevated level of
classy bar room atmosphere for Marsalis' sax. The bass, performed by
John Patitucci, has a larger role in the score, not only providing a
rhythm for the other two jazz performers, but also handling a large
portion of the underscore. It is during these sequences with the bass
that Goldsmith utilizes his electronics to his fullest. With his
knowledge of synthesized integration having matured since the
experimental days of
Legend and
Hoosiers, Goldsmith's
electronics are almost identically appealing in both the concurrent 1990
releases of
Total Recall and
The Russia House. The James
Bond aspect of the spy tale called for the presence of techno-savvy
subterfuge, and thus, the use of Goldsmith's wide array of synthesized
sounds keeps a consistent rhythm set throughout the score. Most of these
sounds are common, light, upper-range, chime-like keyboarding from
Goldsmith's library, though the incorporation of a "release of air"
effect, as heard in the middle of "Introductions," is unique to this
score.
Not always are the solo bass and electronics geared
towards suspense, though. The third element of Goldsmith's score is the
reasonably sized string section, which is added to provide a whimsical
effect for the grand, romantic performances of the main theme and a
secondary idea for Pfeiffer's Katya character. During these moments, the
electronics cease their systematic beats and blossom into chimes and
twinkles. No better of an example exists than the finale of the film,
when the dream-like "The Family Arrives" sequence provides a false sense
of hope at an otherwise doomed finish to the story. During these elegant
performances of Goldsmith's cherished love theme, the sax, strings, and
piano rotate in their pronouncement of the theme, with all three
together occasionally blowing the listener away with stunning aural
beauty (such as "Bon Voyage"). Over half of the score, though, consists
of the suspenseful underscore previously mentioned, with the bass and
electronics leading the way. Goldsmith throws in two more elements
during these sequences. First, some very light percussion, crisply
recorded, keeps the film moving at a preset tempo. To do this, Goldsmith
integrates the clicking of a metronome (the device by which instrument
performers set their tempo in practice) right into the scheme of the
recording. Only a snippet of traditional jazz band percussion is used,
such as the light cymbal tapping during the faster rhythmic opening to
"Training." Assessing the need for a slight Soviet influence on the
score, Goldsmith also composes for the duduk and balalaika, the former
being an Armenian instrument that will sound, to the common American
ear, like a low, fluttering woodwind instrument. These elements are
combined well with Goldsmith's American jazz, leading to a very smooth
and listenable hour of music. The duduk is employed in a creative way so
that it almost sounds as though it's a naturally lower progression of
the sax, increasing both instruments' emotional range at moments like
the end of "The Meeting." Cues that merge these woodwind sounds, as well
as the metronome and synthetics, with some slight improvisation from the
lead trio, as in "Crossing Over," are a delight.
Thematically,
The Russia House contains five
motifs, the love theme for Barley and Katya only the most obvious of the
lot and heard first in "Katya." Two of the secondary themes are played
off each other in "The Conversation," first the duduk and balalaika
theme at the outset representing the Russian interests in the tale and
then Barley's own sax theme on top of that. The latter is an
abbreviated, ascending variation of the main love theme. Katya's solo
theme for whimsical violins is introduced at the beginning of "Portrait
of Katya" (followed immediately by Barley's theme, again on sax) and
takes an ethnic tilt at 1:02 into "Katya and Barley" before
transitioning to its more usual strings later in the same cue. The final
theme of
The Russia House is arguably its most intriguing;
representing the suspense of the plot, Goldsmith coins four-note phrases
for bass strings that typically exist under the composer's pace-setting
electronics. Heard first in "We've Got Him," this motif opens
"Introductions" and experiences a significant variance in pacing and
intensity throughout the film. Some of the highlights of the score, as
at 1:55 into that same cue, exist when the jazz trio takes over the
suspense theme's rhythm and the two halves of the score co-exist with
cunning duality. The same, cymbal-tapping sense of high style is
reprised over the suspense motif in "The Meeting." All put together,
much of Goldsmith's music for
The Russia House is the ultimate in
ethno-noir thriller ambiance, some of which the type of cleverly subdued
romanticism that you wish you could hear every time you go into a
dimly-lit, upscale bar. It is friendly yet mysterious. It is smoky yet
crystal clear. It is vibrant yet lulls you to a different place. Its
recording quality is so crisp that Marsalis' sax bounces off the walls
with remarkable clarity. The monotony of its potentially underwhelming
construct is compensated for by the sheer talent of its performers and
the constant sense of movement that Goldsmith's rhythms use to maintain
your interest. In these regards,
The Russia House is the ultimate
"homework score," a description used by career students who have spent
countless hours researching and writing to this music.
The vocal version of Goldsmith's theme, performed in
the song "Alone in the World" by Patti Austin, maintains much of the
same instrumentation and character as the score, Goldsmith lending
similar electronic backing for consistency. Aside from the recognizable
Goldsmithian electronics and some minor-key bass string movements teased
for later development in
Basic Instinct, this score is like
nothing conjured by a major film composer during the digital era. Other
composers have tried to score films with the same emphasis on jazz, but
none has succeeded with the same distinguished sense of class and style
as Goldsmith accomplished here. To that end, traditional Goldsmith fans
might not warm up to
The Russia House at first. But it has become
a legend within the film score industry, a favorite score for several
leading composers still working today, with similar praise extended from
fans all over the world. Goldsmith maintained his own love affair with
the final track of
The Russia House, the true highlight of the
album for which he allowed the trio of jazz musicians to improvise over
seven minutes of material spanning three of the themes, leading to an
enjoyably snazzy conclusion for the score. The composer could not resist
reprising an almost identical sound at the end of his underrated 1993
score for
The Vanishing even though it sounds curiously out of
place and not as crisp in recording. He would also touch upon the basics
of the style at the conclusion of 1997's
The Edge. Even on its
addictively attractive album, however,
The Russia House still
caused personal frustration for Goldsmith. Not only was his love theme
unwanted for no less than two films, but the 1990 MCA album, as
presented, was unwanted by the composer as well. It's a classic example
of how composers wish to maintain control over the presentation of their
works outside of their intended film use. Perhaps the ultimate irony of
Goldsmith's quest to narrow down the length of the album for
The
Russia House to cut its redundancies is that neither of the other
two scores featuring versions of its themes (
Alien Nation and
The Vanishing) would receive commercial albums, both relying
instead on bootlegs and eventual Varèse Sarabande Club CD
treatment.
Goldsmith disapproved of the MCA Records album because
it presented the mass of the music from the film intact. Many people
will argue alongside Goldsmith that
The Russia House would make a
fantastic 30-minute album. But MCA, in this case, got it right. There
are nuances in this score that make every moment one of intrigue. If you
cut out all of the duduk ethnicity and bass string suspense, you would
be left with the dozen renditions of the love theme, and one of the
great aspects of the score in its entirety is its ability to launch one
of those lush thematic statements at just the right moment of lonely
despair. No better such example exists than the cue "My Only Country,"
which spans nearly the score's whole emotional spectrum. It should come
as no surprise that a Quartet Records expanded presentation of
Goldsmith's
The Russia House in 2017, clocking in at 76 minutes
and moving the song to the end, sold out of its woefully inadequate,
1,000-copy run within weeks. While only adding about ten minutes of
substantively new music, that additional material is rewarding. The
suspenseful string ambience of "First Meeting," the gorgeous Katya and
Barley themes of "Portrait of Katya" (the score's only acoustic guitar
moment), the Katya and suspense theme interplay on piano and synthetics
in "The Lie Detector," and the lushly melodramatic Katya theme opening
to "The Cemetery" are all fantastic additions on the 2017 product. Sound
quality is also stellar on this presentation, Goldsmith's electronics
stunningly encompassing. Quartet thankfully re-issued this presentation
on CD without stating pressing limits in 2021. Many listeners will be
deterred by the length of any of the albums, overlooking the profound
impact that an understated score like this can have on its film, and
some will comment that the score is simply too depressing to enjoy on a
bright, sunny afternoon. But elegance comes in many forms, and the music
from
The Russia House, while perfect for the shadows of midnight
despair, is a score that anyone, and especially a Goldsmith enthusiast,
should be able to appreciate at any hour. The work came during a
fantastic year for film music, and while John Barry's
Dances With
Wolves, Danny Elfman's
Edward Scissorhands, and Basil
Poledouris'
The Hunt for Red October, among others, drew all the
mainstream attention, the quality of
The Russia House exceeds all
of them. The difference is
style.
***** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Jerry Goldsmith reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 124 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.29
(in 153,454 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert of the 1990 MCA album includes no extra information about the score or film.
Those of the 2017 and 2021 Quartet albums contain notation about both. Sean Connery does not
perform the sax himself as depicted in the film.
