Great Concert, Great Performance - But Terrible DVD!

When I first saw this performance on PBS in '93, I was blown away by the sheer majesty of the music. Yanni's music had always bored me to death, but this live performance packs such a wallop to his music like never heard in the studio. Adding in the Royal Philharmonic gives much more stamina to his music. And you know his core band members are so into this that they put so much more energy into the performances that just couldn't be captured in the studio.

I bought this on VHS right away and played it until the VCR was smoking and eventually blew up! Later on DVDs hit the medium and as I saw and heard the visual and sonic potential of these little CD-like discs from earlier releases like the DTS enhanced Eagles "When Hell Freezes Over", I knew this concert video would be a prime candidate for a major DVD concert release.

Sadly, this release ended up being the most disappointing DVD I ever bought. The 5.1 mix is absolutely horrendous. Instead of utilizing the 54 track digital audio master tapes, they simply used the 2 track video soundtrack and artificially created some sort of surround mix that's completely out of balance. The rear channels seem to only come out of one side, so you're not getting a true multi-channel mix. The only way to reasonably listen to this is in the 2 channel PCM mode. Still sounds good, but the potential was completely wasted.

From what I've understood from Yanni's website, was he had no control over the production of this DVD. We can only pray that a complete re-master will eventually be done with his supervision. What a waste!

NON YANNI FANS WILL LOVE, A MUST SEE FOR ALL!

Although this is Yanni's performance the violinist, the drummer and the band members hide the fact I am not a true Yanni fan. The best drum solo I have seen and I have seen a lot. Also the woman in red if you will who performs miraculous works of art and music on her violin are not to be missed. Became a favorite CD of my nine year old daughter and you must see to love it.

Great gift for my partner -- she LOVED it!

The DVD arrived in a timely fashion and was in perfect shape.