Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
At The Academy of Sciences. Great Compositions (1934–1938)
1934 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE 21 February - Programme of his radio concert in Bucharest: Bach’s English Suite No. 3, of his own works Suite Op. 14, Burlesque No. 2, Bear Dance, Evening in Transylvania, Rumanian Folk Dances, and Allegro barbaro. The next stage of the concert tour would have been Temesvár on 26 February, in Radu Urlatianu’s organisation. Urlatianu had also organised the Temesvár performance of Kodály ’ s Psalmus Hungaricus shortly before, for which he was rudely attacked, so the Romanian authorities banned Bartok’s concert. 25 February - Bartok indignantly leaves for home. 26 February - He arrives in Budapest. 27 February - He writes a letter to the Romanian Minister of Home Affairs, in which - with reference to his Romanian folk song collecting and 2 Romanian medals - he denounces their procedure. 2 March - He leaves Budapest for Switzerland. 3 March - He writes a letter to Sándor Albrecht in Pozsony “ On my way (toward Winterthur)”: he explains the reasons behind his 14 January letter referring to various financial restrictions and asks that his mother’s pension be sent directly to him; also promising to look for the requested copy of the Quintet for him, although that is “much more clumsy and less independent as yet” than Suite No. 1. 5 March - At the hall of the Winterthur Town Hall he plays his Piano Concerto No. 2 conducted by Hermann Scherchen. 8 March - In Zurich he also performs Piano Concerto No. 2, Hermann Hofmann conducting. At this concert Ilona Durigo is also participating. - He is leaving for home the same day. From the train he thanks H. Hofmann for his efforts, and asks that his forgotten scores be forwarded to him. 10 March - He arrives in Budapest. In the meantime Ivan Balló described his stand against the Matica in a lengthy letter, and expressed his wish to keep on dealing with the preparation for print of the Slovakian collection. 362
