YANNI’S O-RENA SHOW PLEASES

July 21, 1995

It’s rather ironic that composer Yanni achieved platinum success through PBS exposure, given that most of his work sounds like the soundtrack to some film you might see on the USA network late at night.

Some of the songs Yanni played at the Orlando Arena Wednesday night might also do nicely for, say, a CBS Afterschool Special or possibly a particularly thrilling episode of MacGyver. It’s basically background music, full of dramatic moments but lacking real harmonic and thematic development.

Yanni brings his music into the foreground by adapting it to classical and pop conventions. His compositions don’t have the sophistication of classical music or the wonderful simplicity of great pop music. But Yanni’s concerts feature his very own orchestra, which gives the impression that something weighty is going on. They also feature a rock-style rhythm section, including two drummers, who help provide a certain feeling of propulsion.

And Wednesday, Yanni and his musicians availed themselves of many of the devices that rock stars have found so effective in arenas. When standing at his synthesizer keyboards, clad in a flowing white shirt and loose white trousers, Yanni showed he can toss his hair with the best of them. (And it’s hard to think of a single rocker with tresses as shiny and abundant as Yanni’s.)

At times, Yanni played facing away from his keyboards, orienting himself toward the audience, his features set in an expression of intense concentration. At other times, he faced his keyboard or piano but gazed soulfully into the video camera that broadcast a close-up of his face on the screens to either side of the stage. Janet Jackson couldn’t have worked that camera any better. Yanni also projected his passion to the back of the house with a little fist-pumping, a little decorous jogging and jumping and a little air guitar.

Yanni’s arrangements also made ample use of arena-rock cliches. Both drummers had solos five minutes or longer. The electric bass player took several flashy solos that didn’t have much to do with the songs in which they occurred but featured lots of popping and tapping and drew ample applause from the full house. Even the symphony musicians resorted to rock-style crowd-pleasing in solos full of rapid high notes and not much else.

All of the musicians were assigned plenty of shtick to enliven the proceedings. The featured violinist blew a kiss to Yanni, wiggled her hips while playing and mimed exaggerated impatience while the orchestra director played his violin. The percussionist held up a sign saying “I’m tired” toward the end of his solo. The French horns did their version of the wave while playing.

Yanni didn’t speak for the first time until well into the show, but he was warm and welcoming to his adoring fans. He introduced some of the songs with upbeat words of wisdom, such as “Our thoughts are our most precious resource. At some point, a thought turns into a dream, and that’s when the magic begins.”

The show ran an extremely generous 2 1/2 hours, including three encores. The set list, naturally, included many of the numbers featured in the Acropolis video, including “One Man’s Dream,” “Marching Season,” “Nostalgia” and “Reflections of Passion.” None of them is exactly a hummable tune, but with his knack for combining the pomp of a symphonic performance with the energy of a pop concert, Yanni could probably take incidental music from Starsky & Hutch and put it across to his audience.

Yiannis Chryssomallis[1] (Greek: Γιάννης Χρυσομάλλης; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni (/ˈjɑːni/ i YAH-nee), is a Greek[6] composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer.

At least sixteen of Yanni's albums have peaked at No. 1 in Billboard's "Top New Age Album" category,[23] and two albums (Dare to Dream and In My Time) received Grammy Award nominations.[13] Yanni has performed in more than 30 countries on five continents,[24] and through late 2015 had performed live in concert before more than 5 million people and had accumulated more than 40 platinum and gold albums globally, with sales totaling over 25 million copies.[25][26] A longtime fundraiser for public television,[3][27] Yanni's compositions have been used on commercial television programs, especially for sporting events.[13][28][29] He has written film scores and the music for an award-winning British Airways television commercial.[28]

Yanni popularized the combination of electronic music synthesizers with a full symphony orchestra.[30] He has employed musicians of various nationalities and has incorporated a variety of exotic instruments[5] to create music that has been called an eclectic fusion of ethnic sounds.[7] Influenced by his encounters with cultures around the world,[27][31] Yanni has been called a "true global artist"[30] and his music is said to reflect his "one world, one people" philosophy.[27]