Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
At The Academy of Sciences. Great Compositions (1934–1938)
1938 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE terribly suppressed [politically, too], but they preserved a quite special ancient language. Its impossible to bring them to Budapest just because of the Romanians’ incredible political suppression, even now it was possible only on occasion of the Eucharistic Congress. Now splendid gramophone recordings were made with them here.”. His mothers condition is increasingly grave, she can hardly walk by now. So Bartok asks his sister to come to Budapest by all means, or send her daughter Éva to stay with his mother and aunt during the Bartoks’ absence. 6 June - He also sends the third (then with a mistaken date of 14 June, the fourth) package of manuscripts to Basel. He sends Mrs Müller- Widmann separate letters about both. 7 June - Travelling to Switzerland via Germany with his wife, he takes along the rest of his manuscript material. - When still in Budapest, he writes AKM his letter of withdrawal with a long justification. 8 June - Still on the train to Switzerland they write to Budapest, to his mother and aunt and to his sister who has arrived in the meantime. During the wait at the Basel train station between 14:25 and 14:50 o’clock, they hand over the fifth package of manuscripts to Mrs Müller- Widmann, then proceed to Luxembourg. 9 June - In Luxembourg, contrary to custom, they rehearse the Sonata for Two Pianos with a conductor (probably with Henri Pensis) who then invites them to his evening concert at the Radio. - They write a postcard to Bartok’s mother and aunt. 10 June - They hold rehearsals both in the morning and in the afternoon. 11 June - In the evening they perform Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussions at the Luxembourg Radio. The performance is made rather more difficult by the conductor; the percussionists are also poor which disturbs Bartok: “I loused up badly at exactly the easiest place” - he writes his mother. - In a letter he writes his son Péter to take good care of the “spyglass” presented to him by Aladár Rácz because that’s 424
