Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)
WORLD WAR II. SECOND AND THIRD AMERICAN TO U R ( 1 9 3 9 - 1 9 4 5 ) 1 944 at Christmas or at New Years Eve. 7 January - He goes on a hike of an hour and a half among the nearby mountains, taking advantage of the nice sunny weather. 8 and 10 January - He writes Boosey & Hawkes, on the 8th his wife: he completed the systematisation of the Wallach lyrics and started to make the fair copy. He estimates the work to be 280-300 sheets. 14 January - He writes his wife: PRS requested he write something for the Album they plan to assemble for conductor Sir Henry Woods 75th birthday (3 March 1944) and that he send the first three bars of Piano Concerto No. 2. “Now I am earning money: the ballet theatre accepted my new piece, they pay 500 dollars” - he adds. 20 January - He writes Scherwood Kains in Cincinnati regarding his wife’s possible appearance. (This didn’t come true.) 21 January - He meets a woman from Bogota (Colombia) who has also been to Budapest. Of this he writes his wife: “Oh - Pest, how beautiful, Hotel Gellért, the wave pool, Margaret Island, etc. ...” 25 January - He has a medical checkup with Dr. Kokas. His weight, as opposed to 40 kgs in March, is 49 kgs. He writes his son Péter regarding the Navy and possible citizenship: “I don’t like this Navy idea ... If you really become a soldier I don’t know what to advise you regarding your citizenship. This needs careful consideration: whether to reject or accept it. Because who knows what the circumstances will be at home, what the country is getting into, will it be possible to get home at all, and if so whether there will be tolerable conditions. .. 7. 28 January - He writes his wife about Concerto: “I finished the arrangement for piano, while working I recalled September and August in Saranac when I had been writing the draffs in bed with a fever, but it’s the same with all compositions: the memory of the time when it was written attaches itself to the piece”. According to his letter his temperature moves around 36.9-37°C (it would be discovered later that the 487
