Damian: In Concert From Bucharest

Zamfir, you have met your match. Yes, the pan-flutist who was once so ubiquitous via late-night TV commercials has been supplanted by someone named Damian (obviously, all the great pipers need only one name), a Romanian musician who managed to draw some 72,000 folks to this 1999 outdoor concert in Bucharest, his homeland's capital city, to witness his particular brand of musical grandeur and bombast. Damian's appeal isn't hard to pinpoint: with his Errol Flynn moustache, his dark, brooding countenance and great flowing mane, he resembles a character from a Harlequin novel. As for the music, well…if you like Yanni and John Tesh…. Although Damian is certainly a master of the pan-flute, his music--presented here in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound--is mostly banal, predictably melodic New Age blather, a fact that even the presence of dozens of accompanying musicians and singers can't disguise (the inclusion of two numbers not written by Damian--Erik Satie's “Gymnopedie #1” and the traditional “Hungarian Dance”--makes his own compositions pale even further). But hey, that's only one guy's opinion; others might argue that 72,000 Romanians can't be wrong. Optional. Aud: P. (S. Graham)