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 )

1929

to write a long letter to his wife Ditta Pásztory,

giving

an account of his journey in the Soviet Union with a detailed description of conditions there - he is strongly critical of the proletarian dictatorship. He will finish this letter only on 28 January in Zurich and will post it there, too.

27 January

- At 11 a.m. travelling “toward Vienna” he writes his mother: “I safely got out of that country ... I am not sorry to have been there, it’s an enormously interesting, beautiful country; it could even be rich ... One cannot even begin to compare how many more interesting things I have seen here in 3 weeks than in America ... in 2 and a half months”.

28 January

- In Zurich he finishes the letter to his wife that he had started on 26 January, notifying her of his 3 February arrival in Budapest by train.

29 January

- Already in Zurich, he sends his mother and aunt a postcard.

30 January

- Composer’s evening at the Concert Hall of the Conservatoire of Basel. Ilona Durigo sings 5 Ady Songs and five of 8 Hungarian Folk Songs. Bartok plays Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 and the Székely

transcription of Rumanian Folk Dances with Stefi

Geyer,

then in solo Suite, Allegro barbaro,

Dirge

No. 1, Burlesque No. 1, and Rumanian Dance No. 1.

31 January

- Composers evening at the Small Auditorium of the Zurich Tonhalle, with

the programme and performers of the previous day in Basel. - On this day the Hungarian Ministry of Public Welfare and Labour gives permission to the widowed Mrs Béla

Bartok

by its decree Pres. No. 21207/1929 to move from Pozsony

to

Hungary.

1 February - At Stadthaussaal

of

Winterthur (canton of Zurich) with Stefi

Geyer he plays Bach’s Sonata in C minor and Schuberts Duo in A major, his own Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2, and the Székely

transcription of Rumanian Folk Dances, in solo Suite and Allegro barbaro. - In the evening he pays a visit to the Rychenberg house.

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