Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Great Concert Tours on Two Continents (1922–1931)
1923 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE soloist he plays Nos. 7 to 15 of 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sonatina, Dirge No. 1, Bear Dance, Evening in Transylvania, Allegro barbaro, 9 small pieces of the series For Children, Rumanian Folk Dances, and 6 Hungarian peasant dances. 4 December - Concert at Belstead Hall of Aldeburgh (Suffolk East). Programme: 3 sonatas by Scarlatti, Debussy’s Pour le piano, Bartoks Improvisations, Hungarian Peasant Songs, Bear Dance, Allegro barbaro, Evening in Transylvania, 3 Burlesques, Rumanian Folk Dances, Sonatina, one Dirge, and one Rumanian Dance. Before the concert he writes a letter to his mother and aunt in Pozsony, detailing his financial results with satisfaction: “I can be calm till the next season regarding finances ... so starting with January I will give less concerts, because it is really high time I orchestrated the Mandarin and also wrote something new”. 6 December - At a symphonic concert organised at Winter Garden of Bournemouth (Hampshire) he plays Rhapsody conducted by Dan Godfrey, as soloist Allegro barbaro, Evening in Transylvania, and Rumanian Dance No. 1. - He writes a postcard to his son in Budapest and to his sister in Szöllős Puszta. “ I play in England 8 times in all (2 public and 6 private performances).” (We have no data at disposition concerning the date and place of one of these, according to its programme “Jelly d ’Arányi and Bélla Bartok ” played Beethovens Kreutzer Sonata beside Bartok playing 3 sonatas by Scarlatti, Dirge No. 1, Bear Dance, Evening in Transylvania, one Burlesque, one Rumanian Dance, finally preludes by Debussy.) 7 December - He mails the postcards in London. 10 December - He makes an appearance at Wigmore Hall of London: with Adila Arányi he plays Beethovens Sonata in C minor Op. 30, and his own Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, as soloist 5 numbers from 14 Bagatells, 5 piano pieces from Kodály ’ s series Op. 3 and Op. 11. 12 December - The last of his concerts in the island country is in St. James’s, 228
