Whenever he was asked to name his own personal favorite within his long and distinguished oeuvre,
Jerry Goldsmith inevitably cited his work on 1977's obscure Ernest Hemingway adaptation Islands in the Stream. A lush, often melancholy score evoking both the serenity and the treachery of the sea, it is undoubtedly
Goldsmith's most intimate effort, eschewing the larger-than-life drama and suspense of his best-known soundtracks.
Islands in the Stream is above all a showcase for the composer's consummate ability to vividly communicate both the physical and emotional landscape in such simple yet precise strokes -- employing little but a lone French horn,
Goldsmith's main theme captures the immense loneliness and solitude of George C. Scott's protagonist, while gentle woodwinds suggest the ocean waves lapping the shore of his island home. Sublime. Intrada's 1997 reissue features a 1986 re-recording of the score overseen by
Goldsmith and performed by
the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra. ~ Jason Ankeny