Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)

Great Concert Tours on Two Continents (1922–1931)

1929

CHRONICLES OF BÉLA

BARTOK'S

LIFE

3 February

- He returns to Budapest from his long tour.

5 February

- He writes his mother and ITHMA, and on 6 February the Italian ambassador’s wife in Moscow, Mrs Cerutti b. Erzsi

Paulay

with his thanks for her support there.

7 February

- He writes his sister about their mothers resettlement problems, the bureaucratic obstacles and tasks.

8 February

- Letter to Rudolf Kolisch and to Universal Edition.

9 February

- In the evening he leaves on his next concert tour in very bad weather on route Budapest-Prague-Berlin-Copenhagen. Trains circulate with long delays, due to this he even has to spend the night in Berlin.

12 February

- In Copenhagen, in the Hall I Odd-Fellow Pala/eets Store he plays the orchestral Rhapsody conducted by Ebbe Hamerich (Hamerik in

Danish).

13 February

- Still in Copenhagen he participates in a public radio concert at the studio of Axelborg.

Programme:

Rossis Toccata in A minor, Marcellos Sonata in B flat major, della Ciaja’s Canzone, Scarlattis Sonata in A major, a few numbers from Kodály

’s Op.

3 and Op. 11, then of his own compositions Bear Dance, Evening in Transylvania, and 2 numbers of 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs. At this same concert the Radio Orchestra, conducted by Emil Reesen, performs two movements of Suite No. 1.

14 February

- In a letter he writes his 4-and-a-half-year-old son Péter

in

all capital letters: “ALSO HERE IN KAPPANHÁGÓ

” [Translators

note: he jokingly exchanged vowels in the word Koppenhága,

Hungarian

for Copenhagen, thus meaning capon pass’] “THERE IS LOTS OF SNOW AND IT’S REALLY COLD. I TRAVELLED HERE BY BOAT. KISSES, DAD”.

15 February

- Piano recital at the Hall Odd-Fellow Pala/eets Midre

of

Copenhagen. Programme: Kodály

’s Transylvanian

Lament, Epitaph, pieces of Piano Music in C major, E minor and C sharp minor, then 292