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Thomas Clear issued 8 albums of LP recordings, transferred from historic 78s. I have them all, and they contain very great rarities, mostly from his own extraordinary collection. Each comes with a booklet describing the performer and the music, often sprinkled with Clear's own very firm opinions. The number of discs in each set varies between 2 and 5, but is most often 4. There are 2 volumes of orchestral music and 2 volumes of chamber music. There is 1 volume of violin music and 1 volume of cello music. Much of the content consists of short pieces or a single movement from a longer work, but there are also a number of complete works with several movements. Then there is a volume titled 'In Memoriam', that contains complete violin works (and others) played by Spalding, Juan Manen (his own Concerto), and Eddy Brown (the complete Tchaikovsky Concerto, from, I believe, test pressings). Finally, there is a volume containing performances by the violinist, Guila Bustabo. This volume is the only one, of all the above, that has been issued on CDs to my knowledge.. Considering that these were issued before the days of CDs, they represent an extraordinary contribution to the history and preservation of important musical documents by important artists.
Harold Zamansky
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