Yanni - Ultimate (2003)

Fact: Yanni released just eight original recordings while under contract to record conglomerate BMG between 1986 and 1994. Ultimate Yanni is, incredibly, the 12th compilation/best-of project BMG has issued since Yanni switched to another label. Yet Ultimate Yanni manages to elevate itself as one of the best of the bunch: a value-priced two-CD package of pre-Tribute material (126 minutes' worth) that, remarkably, includes eight tracks (out of 24) that appear on no previous sampler. Most selections (compiled by radio host and Amazon.com contributor John Diliberto) emphasize Yanni's bolder colors and more muscular instincts, a reminder of his early-career talent for blending progressive-rock drama with a Renaissance man's romantic flair. Three tracks ("Santorini," "Nostalgia" and "The Rain Must Fall") are lifted from Live at the Acropolis and only the latter bogs down under the weight of excessive soloing. "Marching Season" is presented as a piano solo, taken from a long-extinct Private Music sampler. Combine this with Reflections of Passion, his first best-of release (only three tracks overlap), and newcomers to Yanni essentially have his early years covered. --Terry Wood

Here's the scoop on this disc: it is a fine and satisfying survey of the years that Yanni spent while under contract to a major record conglomerate, BMG. It evenly samples different stages of the keyboardist's work from 1986 to 1994 (his thunderous early phase and his romantic-icon period of the early 1990s) and attractively groups some of his most memorable works in a single package (though by shifting back and forth between eras, the pacing at times is uneven). For a Yanni newcomer, this is a good introductory sampler of a major and worthwhile New Age artist. Just realize this: Yanni had nothing to do with this compilation. Nor has he had any involvement with any of the additional five samplers the company has rushed to market since Yanni jumped to another label in 1997.