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 Widmanns’. 28 June - He describes their arrival and mainly the ship voyage to his mother. - He gives the possible dates of the concerts in Holland and Italy to Imre Kun, Director of the Budapest Concert Bureau Koncert. - In a longish letter to Zoltán Székely he gives an account of developments regarding Universal Edition which, having Vienna headquarters, has come under Nazi rule: My situation is still confusing, it will get clarified as much as it would within a couple of weeks in the best of cases. It’s about freeing me from the clutches of these Viennese robber brigands ... If I manage to escape from the UE bandits then I will get to another publisher (English)....” 30 June - They leave Basel for Braunwald (Glarus). They stay at Hotel Tödiblick. “ The actual relaxation starts for us only now” - writes Bartok to his mother and aunt. 3 July - He gives an account of going on some excursions although the weather is very bad, and though having taken along things to work on, he is not dealing with that for the time being, either. In the afternoon they visit Stefi Geyer who is also vacationing there. 4 July - He thanks Mrs Müller-Widmann for her Basel hospitality and invites her for a visit in Braunwald. He writes about their excursion of the day: “... we took good use of today, we were in the mountains from 9 o’clock to 17:30, climbed till about 1,900 metres, walked through snow, saw a mountain jackdaw, picked three kinds of gentians, soldanella, etc. ...” - On the 5th he thanks her for the photos sent over in the meantime. 7 July - They take a whole day’s excursion to the foot of the Eckstock. 8 July - He gladly acknowledges receipt of the postcard written by his mother herself, knowing well how difficult writing is for her. 10 July - He visits the Stefi Geyers again. Bartok writes his mother that they have been unable to go on excursions for 3 days due to the continuous bad weather. 12 July - Béla Bartok Jnr (who in the meantime has been transferred from 426
