Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Connecting to the Music Life of Europe (1904–1906)
1905 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE 21 April - He writes Thomán regarding his financial situation, about an offer of support from Baron Adolf Kohner, bank chief executive and big landowner, that he would not like to accept, of course; furthermore about a letter of encouragement from Richter concerning his England appearance next year. 23 April (Easter Sunday) - He celebrates his name-day in Pozsony. 25 April - He leaves for Vienna again. 7 May - From Vienna he writes his mother how annoyed he is about not getting the expected news from anywhere (concerning the concerts in England, the state subvention for collecting folk songs, the publishing of the Kossuth Death March), he only got a notice about the Rubinstein Award from Paris. The orchestration of Rhapsody is in progress, the orchestral score will amount to cca 60 pages. 14 May - He leaves Vienna for Pozsony, and writes a postcard to his sister: “Lajos Kossuth arrives in the town of Vésztő ”. 15 May - He returns to Vienna. 21 May - István Vedrődy-Vogyerátzky’s oil painting of Béla Bartok is completed in Vienna. Bartok himself corrected the word “Wien” to “Bées” in the dating, and added a short fragment from the score of Suite No. 1. 24 May - The Music Academy notifies him (under number 302/1905) that he is granted a scholarship of 1,000 K (crowns) for his study visit to Seklerland. - The widowed Mrs Béla Bartok writes her daughter: “Béla wants to spend a month in Paris (he doesn’t count on gaining an award, because back-stair influences are very important there, too)”. 25 May - Charity concert in the ceremonial hall of the Community House of Újpest (Újpest is still a community at that time) for the benefit of the music school of the Music Makers’ Society. Bartok plays Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 101, Chopin’s Ballad in G minor, Saint- Saëns’ Valse, Liszt ’s Sonata in B minor, and Feux follets as well as his own Rhapsody. - He takes accommodation in Rákospalota with the 80
