Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
After World War I (1920–1921)
1920 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE telegram for a 28 February performance of Rhapsody. This didn’t come true, they gave a Bartok composer s evening instead. At this time the possibility to acquire a passport was already open. 9 February - Bartok goes to Budapest to this end. In the meantime the Musical Council is being reformed, he is to be elected member, and the press was already airing this as quick fact. 20 February - He protests in a letter written to the Szózat (Manifesto), declaring that he has no wish to take part in a Musical Council from which the best musicians of the country are missing. (This was not published!) - Having received his passport he takes a ship to Vienna on this same day, and on the way there - after nearly 18 months - he has a short meeting with his mother in Pozsony. He is looking for as many contacts in Vienna as possible. 24 February - He receives a ticket for the stage rehearsal of Franz Schreker ’s Die Gezeichneten. 25 February - He gets permission from the Austrian Secretariat of State for Transport to board a train (!) running to Passau. - He meets Géza Révész, already established in Berlin, and they write a joint letter to Mrs Bartok in Rákoskeresztúr. Révész is encouraging Mrs Bartok very much to move to Germany: “ Béla is going to be taken care of also in Munich. Alfred Einstein is really interested and intends to write about him. As I heard he had obtained part of Bêlas things ”. In his postscript Bartok asks for a photo to be sent urgently to Universal Edition for publicity, and writes about the proofs of the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs being ready, one copy having been sent to Rákoskeresztúr, another straight to himself. 26 February - He travels to Germany via Passau. From Regensburg he writes a postcard to his mother in Pozsony in Slovakian (which, although his mother wouldn’t understand, still seemed more advisable due to the censorship). - On his card written to his son Béla, he is praising the beautiful lands by the Danube, and advises him to look 190
