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

Economic Crisis (1932–1933)

ECONOMIC CRISIS (1 932-1 933)

1932

3 April

- He visits his mother and aunt, and gives an account of his journey.

The Bartoks have been living on Kavics

Street

for 4 years. The neighbourhood is getting more and more noisy, Bartok is looking for a quieter place.

10 April

- He rents a house at 27 Csalán

Road

in District 2, this is his last Budapest domicile. - He writes a letter to the Mainz firm Schott regarding the transfer of his fee.

11 April

- The Budapest Roy. Court of Justice registers Béla

Bartok

and Zoltán Kodály s

petition (No. 36074/1932) concerning usurpation of composers’ rights, and launches the procedure against the Rozsnyai firm that hasn’t given a satisfactory reply to their 2 January letter requesting payment.

13 April

- In Budapest Bartok gives a radio concert. His programme: Beethoven’s Sonata in D major, Debussy’s Sarabande

and

Prélude,

Bartok’s Elegy No. 2, and 2 Burlesques.

17 April

- He views the new flat with his mother, and writes the date for the restitution of the old flat to its owner, Alfréd

Langweber.

20 April

- His son Béla

manages

the restitution of the flat, and the Bartok family registers at Csalán

Road.

Yearly rent for the flat from 1 May is 3,700,- pengős.

(The

plot would get divided later on, the Bartoks’ section of the house becoming No. 29.)

24 April

- Premiere of Kodály

’s Transylvanian

Spinning Room at the Budapest Opera House. Bartok attended together with his family. (In the other part of the programme Haydn’s opera The Apothecary was performed.)

8 May

- In a letter he thanks Jenő

Takács in

Cairo for his help in Egypt. There is yet another concert tour during the spring season.

10 May

- He and his wife have dinner at his mother and aunt’s before he leaves for Frankfurt via Austria.

12 May

- He participates at an art conference in Frankfurt organised for the 100th anniversary of Goethe’s passing.

341