The Constantin Silvestri International Foundation

The London Schubert Players Trust remembers Constantin Silvestri

The Constantin Silvestri International Foundation was established in 1997 in Targu Mures, Romania, with the aim of keeping alive the memory of CONSTANTIN SILVESTRI - conductor, composer, pianist - who has been compared to Karajan and Barbirolli and about whose superb recordings The Gramophone commented recently: "After listening to conducting like this, you might ask why the Romanian Silvestri didn't occupy a more elevated position in the musical hierarchy and public consciousness. This is without question one of the greatest ever recordings ... something of a minor miracle ... The Silvestri phenomenon . . ."

It all started with the London Schubert Players travelling 1,300 miles to bring gifts, entertain and make friends with 2,000 Romanian disabled children and teenagers. The pianist Anda Anastasescu, the orchestra's founder, coached the group to perform a short work by Constantin Silvestri Three Pieces for Strings which they found riveting. They played it to enthusiastic public concert audiences as well as to the children. Their concert in the Athenaeum Hall in Bucharest was recorded live and the idea of reviving Silvestri's memory in Britain and Romania was born.