For reasons unknown, it took over two decades for
Henry Mancini's score for the smash 1983 television miniseries The Thorn Birds to earn an official soundtrack release, but Varèse Sarabande's lavish two-disc release proves worth the wait. Nor has time dimmed
The Thorn Birds' power -- this deeply romantic, intimate score remains one of
Mancini's most stirring, rivaling the composer's most legendary big-screen efforts.
Mancini eschews epic drama in favor of smaller-scale nuance, evoking the doomed romance of novelist Colleen McCullough's tale in finely honed strokes. The music is elegant yet understated, rich in variety but amounting to something far greater than the sum of its disparate elements. ~ Jason Ankeny