This 10CD box has been released to celebrate the 75th birthday of a great artist who has beguiled audiences over a 50-year career of great integrity and an extraordinary range of roles. Van Dam’s effortless musicality, burnished velvety sound and ability to inhabit a character made him one of the outstanding singing actors of our time.

While an obvious starting-point for the curious newcomer, these sorts of compilations are usually spurned by serious collectors as most are a ragtag assembly of bits and pieces from complete recordings that they will already have sitting on their crowded shelves – unless there is an unreleased nugget buried inside and then the completist will pounce. However the intelligent programming offered here is something else and bodes well for the launch of this new Erato Autograph series. 

The discs are compiled thematically with one for Devils, one for Fathers, and one for Don Quichottes. CD5 cleverly duplicates the big scene for Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome with the original German version conducted by Karajan and the alternate French version conducted by Nagano – fascinating stuff for the Straussian. Discs 1-6 celebrate van Dam’s versatility and breadth of roles on the opera stage and 7-9 his intelligent exploration of rarities in mélodies, chansons and oratorio. CD10 ties it all together with a lengthy interview recorded in 2014 and produced by Jon Tolansky.