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

21 June

- He arrives in Basel in the morning in freezing cold weather, in the evening he gets to Grenoble where he stays at Grand Hotel de 1’Europe, writing already about better weather to his mother and aunt.

22 June- He proceeds to Le

Lautaret

(Hautes

Alpes). At

his accommodations at Hotel de Glaciers heating was needed, as temperature cooled to 10°C.

25 June

- He gives an account of his arrival to his mother and aunt. - In his letter sent to his son Péter

he

writes: “... they write me that you passed your exam well; I had bought you a book of fairytales that you could get if the exam was good. Ask for it from Mum, in case she hasn’t already given it to you. ...”.

26 June

- He sets out on a full day’s excursion.

27 June

- He describes in detail the conditions at Lautaret to his mother and aunt, among other things that he substitutes the weak light bulb with five candles, but full board is around 10 pengős

per

day, which is very cheap.

29 June

- Due to his absence, he doesn’t attend the Hungarian election of representatives. He will be fined 6 pengős

for

this on 6 December, which he will duly pay down on 27 January 1932.

30 June

- He writes a letter to Edwin von

der Nüll.

3 July

- He writes ITHMA still from Le

Lautaret,

he prepares a draft for a letter to Universal Edition regarding AMMRE, and notifies his mother and aunt that he will travel on earlier than planned because bad weather has set in. - He leaves for Briançon

in

the evening, on 4 July he leaves Briançon

for

Grenoble.

5 July

- He arrives in Geneva to the conference session of the Intellectual Collaboration Committee of the League of Nations.

6 July

- He presents himself at the “Hungarian Embassy” (that is at our League of Nations agency, the embassy being in Bern). He doesn’t find Zoltán Baranyai there

as he is on leave just then. - He meets many interesting people at the opening of the conference, Karel Capek,

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