Having already sampled the work of the Belgian composer Frederic Devreese in tandem with that of his father Godfried (11/94), I was curious as to how, in ''Soundtrack'' (the generic title of this CD), he might reduce his film music to 'Dances Divertimenti and Preludes'. The answer is as a palatable, tuneful and musically varied piano album, one that doesn't pose too many technical problems for the performer and which Andre de Groote (winner of the Harriet Cohen Gold Medal in 1964) interprets with admirable sensitivity.
The styles surveyed and moods evoked herein are astonishingly wide, with the France of Satie (try ''Waltz 1'' on track 4), Poulenc and Milhaud as major influences. If you want to sample for yourself, then try from tracks 14 through to 19 where sidelong musical glances switch from the Richard Rodgers of Lover, to Michel Legrand, the Prokofiev of Visions fugitives, Bartok, Debussy and Poulenc. It's very much a case of 'Written in the style of...' (which is hardly unusual for a film composer) and the results are invariably pleasing. The recording is excellent and I suggest that this selection will make for a superior brand of back ground music. '