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The circumstances under which Silvestri left are a little bit more complicated and very well described in Johh Gritten's biography. An important ( though not the only ) factor in his decision was the fact that he was not allowed to record Enescu's Oedipe; in fact he met with the orchestra and the soloists in the studio, ready to begin, and exactly then he got an order to abort the recording.
Should Silvestri chose to return after he defected, well, in that case the alternative would indeed have been the prison cell.
The incident is mentioned in the book that published the correspondence between Celibidache and one of his best Romanian friends, Eugen Trancu-Iasi. I also heard from an unoficial source before reading the correspondence ( and had my doubts ) , but the volume confirmed it.
I did not say that it was better than the Cluj under Erich Bergel. But Ion Baciu was a wonderful conductor and could inspire the orchestra - whenever the members wanted to make music - and I was reacting in particular to the Paul Constantinescu recording from 1977, the best that I heard from the band.
Regards,
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