Pop Music Reviews : Some Overripe New Age Sounds From Yanni

It’s hard to argue with success. And New Age composer Yanni has had a bunch of it--much of it escalating after the high visibility of an appearance with constant companion Linda Evans on the Oprah Winfrey show a year and a half ago.

But did the music he presented at the Wiltern Theatre on Friday--the first of three nights there--justify the sometimes rapturous responses of his fans?

No and yes.

On the negative side, Yanni’s affection for overripe melodies that mix Mantovani with Vangelis was on full display. Even worse, too many pieces took similar patterns: opening moody synthesizer chords, followed by rhapsodic theme statements, followed by quirky rhythmic passages, all of it accompanied by dramatic tosses of Yanni’s shoulder-length black hair.

Despite this, a few numbers--including some selections from his new album “Dare To Dream”--managed to transcend their super-lush, synthesizer-drenched settings.

Yanni’s easy fluency with unusual rhythmic meters (especially 7/8 and 7/4) provided additional welcome contrast.

Best of all were the works (“Sand Dance” was a particularly good example) that featured the high-voltage violin duo of Karen Briggs and Charlie Bisharat.

Along with drummer Charlie Adams, they brought a sense of spontaneity and natural vitality to a program of music that was too often mired in self-conscious, motionally static repetitiousness.