CCMusic.com

Drawing on the EMI, Erato and Teldec catalogues, each Autograph box focuses on a single artist, providing a biographical panorama of his or her career through a series of thematically programmed CDs and fascinatingdocumentation. Each collection is devised in collaboration with the artist in question, who also features in especially-recorded exclusive interview. Illustrated with musical extracts to illuminate the artist's life and work, the interviews are conducted by the distinguished journalist and broadcaster Jon Tolansky. Celebrating his 75th birthday in 2015 is the Belgian bass-baritone José van Dam, who ranks as one of the great singers of the last quarter of the 20th century, renowned for his insight and integrity in French, Italian, Austro-German and Russian operatic roles - ranging from the Baroque era to contemporary works - and in French and German song. With his finely focused voice, notable for it's nobility of tone, he could also sing both bass and high Baritone roles with distinction. Overall the range of repertoire in José van Dam's Autograph collection is astonishing. The selection of songsalone embraces Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Gounod, Massenet, Ravel, Ibert, Ropartz, Poulenc, Fauré and Frank Martin.