Rediff on the NeT: Yanni will arrive in India on Sunday

'The reason I like to perform in places like the Taj is because they remind us of the greatness of mankind'

Suparn Verma in New Delhi and Prem Panicker in Bombay

Yanni From the 2,000-year-old Herod Atticus Theatre in the Acropolis where he first burst on the world stage on the night of September 25, 1993 to the moon-bathed splendours of the Taj Mahal, where he will perform on the nights of March 20, 21 and 22, has been a voyage in musical time for the performer known worldwide as, simply, Yanni.

Call him the Maestro of New Age Music or the Sultan of Schmaltz -- and which label you choose will probably depend on whether or no you like your classical music to remain, well, classical -- there has been no ignoring the Yanni Chryssomallis phenomenon.

Yanni Live At The Acropolis -- the performance that brought him to global notice -- has thus far been viewed by an estimated half a billion people around the world. In 1994 alone, the performance was viewed by 15 million homes in the US alone, and raised $12 million, making it the biggest fundraiser on public television.

Yanni The album, meanwhile, has sold an astounding 6 million units, while the home video, which has sold a million units and counting, is the third best selling music video of all time in the US. The album and video have, between them, notched up 31 Platinum and 2 Gold awards throughout the world, and spent an unprecedented 107 weeks on the Billboard charts.

This, then, the musician who, with his 47-member orchestra, will perform at that tomb of love, the Taj.

It straightaway begs the question -- what's with Yanni's penchant for such out of the way venues? The Royal Albert Hall in London, where he performed subsequent to the Acropolis outing, is, of course, an accepted musical venue, but neither the Acropolis, nor the 2,000-year-old Toji Temple, birthplace of the Shingon sect of Buddhism, nor yet the Taj rank among accepted proscenia for public performers. And next month, he is scheduled to take his musical circus to the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Again, why?

"The reason I like to perform in such places as the Parthenon or the Toji temple and the Taj is because they automatically remind us of the greatness of mankind," says Yanni. "When I visit these sites, I am in awe of what human beings can do, and it reaffirms my faith in the power of the individual."

So now we know.

Yanni will arrive in Delhi on Sunday. After refreshing himself at the Maurya Sheraton -- the same hotel where Bill Gates stayed last week -- the musician and his entourage will proceed to Agra by a chartered flight the same evening. And at the Mughal Sheraton in Agra he will stay, appropriately enough, in a room named after probably the most legendary of Indian musicians -- Mian Tansen.

And then? While his crew concentrates on setting up the stage and equipment, Yanni himself will prepare for his performance. Unlike most other musicians, though, Yanni's preparations have less to do with fine-tuning the musical compositions and more to do with getting into the mood, the ambience. Here is how Yanni himself describes his rites of preparation:

Yanni "First of all, and usually late at night, I will sit in the dark, turn off the lights, and visualise myself in the audience, right in the middle of the audience, maybe 10th row centre, seeing the stage. Seeing the house lights go down, hearing the audience applaud, and we are ready to begin. And at that point I think, what is the first thing that I would like to hear, that would impress me? Would it be a bass note? Would it be a hit with the orchestra? Would it be just one violin and then one hit, or would it be a rhythm? This starts me visualising myself as a member of the audience, and there are a million decisions you make that way and if you don't really feel it, it's like shooting in the dark."

In that, perhaps, lies a clue to Yanni. And a key to why his success with the audience is not matched by critical plaudits -- he is more performer than musician. Seen purely in musical terms, his pieces, marked by a soaring sentimentality that is a Yanni trademark, do not however go in much for harmonic complexity and orchestral ingenuity. Or, put more simply, the notes are soft and simple.

At its best, Yanni's music is touchy-feely in character, and in that sense typically New Age. And speaking technically, there is a marked preference for the bass, the keyboards and the drums to the richer sounds of the violins, harpsichords and indeed the rest of the conventional orchestra.

Yanni The fan, though, would see it the above as quibbling -- for when he goes to a Yanni concert, he does so not to be swept away on the wings of musical creativity, but to be seduced by saccharine sentimentality. And Yanni caters unabashedly to his muse -- the audience. Besides tailoring every note, every dramatic pause is tailored for the audience.

And underlining this symbiosis between performer and audience is Yanni's habit of addressing audiences in their native language. "For days before a concert, I walk around repeating out loud what I want to say to each audience. It is not merely phonetic," says Yanni, "it is more that I want to understand the words as well. The rhythm and sound of the words tells you a lot about the culture of the people."

So from Sunday night on, Agra-ites will probably be treated to the sight of the long-haired musician wandering the streets, speaking Hindi words and phrases with a distinctly Greek accent.

Besides the use of the native tongue, another facet of his matinee idol persona is his habit of responding to questions from the audience. And most of the questions inevitably revolve around his love life, more particularly his six-year liaison with television actress Linda Evans of Dynasty fame, who is all of 12 years his senior.

Yanni Evans is travelling to India with the musician who inspired her to gush, live on the Oprah Winfrey show, "I looked at him and I had no idea. No idea! He is the sexiest man I have ever met -- if I knew what he looked like before I made that first phone call to him, I would never have had the nerve to call."

That sex-symbol image is underlined by the pristine whiteness of his stage costume -- white wing-collared silk shirt and white linen trousers, relieved only by the black of his belt and the lighter black of his moustache and hair. And Yanni milks the image for all it is worth -- his eyes closed, his lips smiling wide as the music rises to a crescendo, the mane of unruly hair whipping back to the toss of the head at the precise psychological moment while two giant screens on either side of the stage give the audience an up-close and personal look at all that male magnetism.

With Yanni and Evans -- whose contribution, by the way, is strictly behind the scenes -- will be a bunch of talented musicians of whom the star is undoubtedly Karen Briggs, the violinist whose superb solos and sensuous on-stage dancing have made her second only to Yanni himself in the popularity charts. Backing Briggs is flautist Pedro Eustache, vocalist Jeannette Clinger and George Veras.

Yanni The Taj concert has Yanni fans flocking to the venue from around the world. Creative Travels, who are responsible for getting the various clearances and putting in place the travel arrangements, have booked every single room in Agra. "We got Yanni's confirmed dates six months ago," says Creative's manager V Subramaniam, "and at that time we booked rooms in every available hotels. So if you want to go to Agra for the concert, you will have to go through us." Room rents for the duration are pegged at between $40 to $100 a night.

The Maurya Sheraton staff, meanwhile, are having a relatively easy time of it. Unlike other high profile celebs, Yanni is easy to please as far as arrangements for his comfort goes -- one coffee brewing machine for his personal use, one bottle of Absolut Vodka, and the musician is happy.

Perhaps there is, in that unopened bottle of vodka that will greet Yanni when he books into the Tansen room at the Maurya Sheraton, a symbol of sorts for those looking to get an insight into the secret of the performer's phenomenal success.

For like a drink of the very best, a Yanni concert is designed to make you feel that little bit nicer, that extra bit warmer, inside.

What better reason for a moonlit concert on the banks of the river that, from the days of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, has flowed on, as unstoppable as Time itself, beside that enduring testament to deathless love?

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