Modest in both scale and sound, If I Could Tell You represents a less-elaborate, back-to-basics approach to music for an artist lately accustomed to staging Grand Statements (see Tribute). A straightforward, keyboard-based studio recording with minimal accompaniment, If I Could Tell You finds Yanni exploring a pleasant though largely unexceptional middle ground--less overtly romantic than his early 1990s bestsellers In My Time and Dare to Dream nor as boldly expressive as his rousing early releases. "Sacred Ground" opens the disc with a choir of electronically treated voices chanting ethereally over gentle rhythms and Native American flute, followed by the flamenco-tinged minor drama of "The Flame Within". Yanni's most interesting ideas arrive at mid-disc, starting with the harmonic tribal chanting on the rhythmic "Wishing Well", followed by a pair of agreeable romantic-dramatic forays on piano and keyboards ("A Walk in the Rain", "Highland"). Yet compared to Yanni at his expressive best, these selections and others that follow convey a surprising neutrality. Not that this music is objectionable. The stately romantic piano found on "In Your Eyes", for example, is graceful and appealing. Overall, though, the mood here is tame, reserved--and here's that word again--modest. After a three-year wait following the globe-girdling Tribute, this approach is a bit of a surprise. --Terry Wood