Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Economic Crisis (1932–1933)
1932 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE there is scarce chance of them being performed in Hungarian”. 30 November and 1 December - He writes Universal Edition. 3 December - By decree No. 3420/1932 he is awarded the Knights cross of the Romanian order “Meritul Cultural”. Bartok wasn’t keen on the publication of Cantata prof ana completed in 1930, because he had intended it to be part of a trilogy. Seen that it could have been ready only years later (and finally didn’t come to fruition) they began to consider its publication after all. Bence Szabolcsi was translating the lyrics to German. 6 December - Bartok promises Sándor Albrecht (who is enquiring about the piece) to send a photocopy of the orchestral score later, but it would still take a long time to be ready. At the same time he asks him to press Ivan Balló for an answer regarding the Matica case. 13 December - He appears again at Radio Budapest after a lengthier time. He plays Bach’s French Suite No. 2, Mendelssohn’s Scherzo in E minor, and Schubert’s Sonata in B flat major. For his appearance he receives a fee of 360 pengős. 14 December - He writes a lengthy letter to Universal Edition about the publication of Piano Concerto No. 2 composed already in 1930/31, about Szabolcsi’s preface to the 44 Violin Duos, and offers 100 Austrian schillings to the so-called Hertzka Foundation. 19 December - Another letter to Universal. 22 December - He buys a Remington portable typewriter during his Christmas shopping. This is the first (and last) typewriter of his life. Later on he got a few accents, punctuation marks changed on the typewriter, mainly to be able to write the Romanian texts correctly. 24 December - He writes AKM, in the afternoon he visits his mother and aunt, and spends the evening in family circle at home. 25 December - He spends the whole afternoon at his mother and aunt’s, writes 4 postcards and 1 letter in German, and gives advice to his pupil Mária Pataky concerning Paris performances. 346
