Consumer Guide Album

Yanni: Yanni Live at the Acropolis [Private Music, 1994]
Affluent spirituality cum cornball romanticism from a florid New Age keyb maestro, his guitarless yet oddly rockish band (dig those drum solos), and one of those symphony orchestras that'll hook up with anyone who leaves enough cash on the night table. Given the august location of this "event of a lifetime," it seems only appropriate to cite pseudo-Plutarch, the Roman protomusicologist who summed up the Greek "new wave" composers of the fifth century B.C.: "Crexus, Timotheus and Philoxenus . . . displayed more vulgarity and a passion for novelty, and pursued the style nowadays called `popular' or `profiteering.' The result was that music limited to a few strings, and simple and dignified in character, went quite out of fashion." Whether you're a diehard punk or a self-actualized higher being who got lost on the way to the futon ads, there's much to ponder in this ancient wisdom. And f.y.i.: Timotheus was the premier composer of his age, kind of a cross between Chopin, Wagner, and Andrew Lloyd Weber. If Yanni had any idea who he was, even Yanni would acknowledge that he had more to say to his time than Yanni does to his. I think. D+