Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Great Concert Tours on Two Continents (1922–1931)
1931 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE participation. The printed programme carries the translation of Kodály’s article in La Revue Musicale (with a fault: it indicates Nagyszentmiklós after 1918 as Jugoslavian territory instead of Romanian). 8 February - He writes his son Péter that he will set out for home that same day. 10 February - He returns to Budapest sick with fever, he has to lie down at once. 13 February - He gets an official notice from the French ambassador of Budapest that on the occasion of his approaching 50th birthday he has gained Knight’s Cross of the French Legion of Honour. 14 February - He leaves his sickbed. He writes a letter to Universal Edition in which he protests their very high music score rental fees; e.g. it was due to this that in Antwerp Endre Gertler didn’t play Rhapsody No. 1. 16 February - In a letter written in firm terms to Hubert J. Foss (Oxford University Press) he demands the return of the manuscript of his kolinda collection handed over years earlier, because he has been waiting in vain for a reply both from London and Bucharest regarding its publication. 17 February - He is making suggestions to Constantin Briloiu in Bucharest, still in the hope of managing to bring about the publication there. 18 February - Totally recovered, he visits his mother. 22 February - He replies Briloiu’s telegram of inquiries about the planned birthday festivities. He confirms once more that he agrees to giving a concert, but wouldn’t like a celebration; as for the inauguration of the memorial tablet, he will attend only if it will also bear a Hungarian inscription. (After which the inauguration of the memorial got cancelled; a bilingual plaque placed on Bartok’s house of birth only in 1948; in 1971 changed again for one with Romanian inscription, then, following appropriate measures, for a bilingual one once more.) 23 February - He writes ITHMA and Imre Weisshaus (Pál Arma), 320
