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 4 April - From Kecskemét he has to return to Budapest in order to give his piano lessons at the Music Academy. 5 April - He leaves for Makó where in the Ceremonial Hall of the County House, at the concert of the Stefánia Association he presents his 3 April programme, with the difference of replacing Dirge No. 1 with Evening in Transylvania. 6 April - In Szeged he gives a concert in the Ceremonial Hall of Hotel Tisza. Beside the previous days pieces by Marcello, Scarlatti, della Ciaja, Beethoven, and Liszt, the programme consists of Kodály ’s Transylvanian Lament and Epitaph, of his own compositions Allegro barbaro, Elegy No. 2, 3 pieces of Out of Doors, and Preludio- AlVUngherese. 7 April - He completes his tour of the Great Plain in Békéscsaba with the Szeged programme of the previous day. 8 April - In Budapest he accompanies his wife on a medical visit. 9 April - He leaves for Rome. 12 April - A Bartók-Szigeti evening at the Academy Santa Cecilia in Rome. Bartok plays 3 numbers of Out of Doors and Preludio-AlVUngherese, then Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 with Szigeti followed by Beethovens Sonata in G major, the transcription of For Children by Szigeti and that of Rumanian Folk Dances by Székely. (Incidentally, “Bartock” was written in the programme everywhere.) After the concert he writes a postcard from Café Greco to his wife in Budapest and to his mother in Pozsony: “Szigeti and I are sitting in a café which even Liszt, Berlioz once frequented”. 14 April - In the afternoon, at the scene of the previous concert he plays Rhapsody with the Rome Philharmonics conducted by Bernardino Molinari. In the evening, at Palazzo Cardelli of Rome, in the home of “ T. H. E” (whose identity is doubtful) he gives a piano recital in front of 50 invited “distinguished” personages. Programme: Kodály ’s Epitaph and 296
