The River - Expanded

Track Listing Legend:
*Previously unreleased

Intrada announces its latest collabration with Universal Studios and UMe with the release of John Williams' Oscar-nominated score to the 1984 film The River. The film marked Williams' fourth collaboration with director Mark Rydell, having previously worked together on The Reivers, The Cowboys, and Cinderella Liberty. Released on LP by MCA Records concurrent with the film's theatrical release, the album was a strong presentation of the score, featuring selections that were recorded specifically for the album. Nearly half of the soundtrack features rearranged or expanded versions of their film counterparts. As with Intrada's release of Monsignor, this new CD opens with the original remastered MCA program followed by the entire film score, including alternates, and is produced by Mike Matessino.

A firm entry in Williams' Americana oeuvre, The River features a strong theme for the homestead "under siege," heard in its fullest form during the spectacular "The Ancestral Home." The score also features the solo colors of flute, trumpet and guitar, moving between the power of family and home, lighthearted family life and the colder, darker nature of storms, both natural and human-made.

In the film, Tom and Mae Garvey (Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek) are a Tennessee farming couple fighting a war to save their farmland on two fronts. Mother nature besieges the farm with violent floods on one side and on the other a greedy land developer (Scott Glenn) tries to foreclose on the farm in order to build a dam to produce power.