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As An Aid To Understanding, We Deconstruct

Yanni

June 25, 1995|By Stories by STEVE METCALF; Courant Music Critic

The ``Yanni in Concert: Live at the Acropolis'' show, which has been shown nationwide on Public Television, is now the second-most effective PBS show for eliciting pledges, just a hair behind the Three Tenors.

The decision to broadcast the concert on PBS was reportedly made after some delay and with some reluctance, after discussion of its suitability for the network that also broadcasts the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

* As a kind of peaceful, easy-feeling link between pop music and classical music.

Many of his fans claim this distinction on behalf of the Y-man.

And maybe it's true. Maybe Yanni's confident, approachable orchestral strains are what some modern listeners need in order to re-tool their hearing away from ``Louie Louie'' and more in the direction of Hindemith's ``Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber.''

Yanni's music, from a harmonic standpoint, is constructed of materials found in a lot of late-19th, early 20th century classical music. It is essentially tonal, tinged with mild whiffs of dissonance here and there, sometimes rhythmically frisky, graspable on first listening, and self-evidently mood-inducing. (There are, it seems, two basic moods to Yanni music: struttingly heroic with martial overtones, and dreamily contemplative).

Actual classical pieces that also have some of these qualities and which might therefore appeal to Yanni fans:

* Holst: The Planets

* Vaughan Williams: Variations on a Theme of Thomas Tallis

* Gershwin: Concerto in F

* Ravel: Pavane for aDead Princess

* Terry Riley: In C

* Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

* Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2

* Poulenc: Concerto for Two Pianos in D-minor

* As someone who serves the useful social purpose of helping put John Tesh in perspective.

Yanni may or may not be a rich beacon of musical originality or depth, but compared with Tesh -- who once served as a Yanni sideman -- he is a blend of Wagner, Schoenberg and Jerome Kern.

* As a follower of the biblical injunction to go out into the world and invest your talents, such as they may be, to the fullest.

Yanni's albums have sold 12 million copies worldwide. The ``Live at the Acropolis'' album alone has been certified double platinum, with sales of 2.8 million units. The video version of the concert was the third-largest-selling video of 1994.

And, as we said before, his concert in Hartford, on a Tuesday night in June, is a sellout. And has been for weeks.

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