Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)

School Years (1890–1903)

SCHOOL YEARS (1 890-1 903)

1902

“Because one needs to see, hear, and experience a lot”.

9 May

- He watches The New York Belle at the Hungarian Theatre with the guest appearance of Madge Perry.

11 May

- He watches The Lady of the Camellias and Abbot Constantin at the National Theatre.

12 May

- In his letter to his mother he is asking for the Beethoven symphonies again, though not for selling anymore but for playing. In preparation for the summer he is also asking that the English schoolmistress in Pozsony

be

notified, furthermore five different repairs should be done on their piano by Pozsony

piano

tuner Werner, so that “its temper would be like that of all respectable pianos”.

15 May

- At the Gárdonys

he

meets the visibly moody Dohnányi,

upon whose request he plays Schumanns Aufschwung

and

Liszts transcription of Schuberts Erlkönig.

Dohnányi

doesn

’t say a thing. Afterwards the four of them take a jansom-cab to a café

“

--to listen to Gipsy music (!)”.

16 or

17 May - He goes to see the performance of Isadora Duncan, he finds it pretty. Her dance is “more likeable than the acrobatic jumping about of ballerinas”.

17 May

- He writes a picture postcard to his sister Erzsiké

in

Pozsony

mentioning that he has received his mother’s letter.

19 May

- He goes to the Kunwalds to see the Dohnányis

’ four

and a half month-old son János.

- In his letter to his mother he writes among other things, that Dohnányi

advised

him not to practise more than 2 hours a day, because that makes one stupid. On the other hand, according to Thomán,

D

’Albert practised

even 7 hours, Liszt sometimes even more, yet they didn’t become stupid. He is urging again that the symphonies be sent, and mentions that the matter of his rooming is still unresolved.

24 May - He writes a picture postcard to his sister Elza

in

Pozsony.

26 May

- He plays Chopin’s Barcarolle and one of Liszt’s transcriptions 49