Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Great Concert Tours on Two Continents (1922–1931)
GREAT CONCERT TOURS ON TWO CONTINENTS (1 922-1 931 ) 1927 passing through the Pozsony train station. “Now there is already glory, but no money” - says Kodály. 18 November - Bartok takes a stroll in different parts of Stuttgart, then gives a radio concert: “it was transmitted from four towns simultaneously (they also connected Frankfurt, Cassel and I don’t know what other)” - he writes. 19 November - He writes his mother and aunt that he plays Rhapsody in Munich on the 21st, because “Those didn’t want the piano concerto!”. In the evening, after the performance of Rhapsody he takes a train, leaving for Munich. 20 November - Rehearsal of Rhapsody in Munich. The conductor is Siegmund von Hausegger. 21 November - He writes his mother and aunt: “here Hausegger is the conductor ... He was in Zurich when we were there together. ... He does the rhapsody well, of course this is not as difficult as the concerto”. After the evening concert he leaves for home. 22 November - In the afternoon he arrives in Budapest. (The concert planned for 23 November in Mainz was cancelled.) 24 November - From Budapest he writes the Bechstein firm in Berlin. 26 November - Letter to Universal Edition in Vienna. - Letter to his mother and aunt in Pozsony, in which he plans their travel and stay in Budapest and Szöllős Puszta in detail. “You must travel on 2nd class by all meansll [There were still three classes on the trains at that time.] Béla (my son) comes to meet you in Szob ... At the customs examination don’t try to lift off the basket!, ask for a luggage porter by all means, ... to whom then you give 50 (Hungarian) fillérs for this.” 28 November - Letter to ITHMA. 29 November - He authorises Tibor Polgár to make orchestral transcriptions of some numbers from 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs and 10 Easy Piano Pieces. - In the evening recital at the Music Institute of Higher Education (Music Academy). Programme: Beethoven’s 271
