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

War Years (1914–1919)

1918

CHRONICLES OF BÉLA

BARTOK'S

LIFE

of the members of the String Quartet Waldbauer:

Duo

for Violin and Violoncello, Sonata for Solo Violoncello, and String Quartet. According to Mrs Kodály

there

was a huge tempest at the concert.

9 May

- Mrs Bartok invites János

Bu§i|ia

for the premiere of the Bluebeard, which was planned for approx, the 24th.

10 May

- In Vienna, at the evening of the periodical Musikblätter

des

Anbruch, the

Waldbauers

play

String Quartet No. 2.

24 May

- Premiere of the Bluebeard conducted by Egisto Tango. The two characters are: Oszkár

Kálmán and

Olga Haselbeck. In the second part of the evening the 14th performance of The Wooden Prince.

25 May

- The Bluebeard is performed again, then twice more during the season, followed by further four occasions during the next season between 5 October and 12 January 1919.

4 June

- Bartok reaches two agreements with Universal Edition; one about the publication, performance and translation of the stage works, the other concerning composer s rights.

6 June

- He reports on this with great joy to Bu§i|ia: “Such offer might never yet have been given to a Hungarian musician by a publisher from abroad. ... At any rate this contract is my greatest success as a composer so far”. He also writes about his summer plans, he is preparing to visit Szováta

and

Belényes,

but

only the latter came true.

20 June

- The local board of Rákoskeresztúr

summons

him about matters regarding his flat, because its owner has set up different claims.

21 June

- He meets Menyhért

Lengyel,

and they reach an agreement setting The Miraculous Mandarin to music.

At the beginning of July instead of Szováta

he

travels to Kertmeg Puszta

to

his sister to gain weight.

4 ,

then 12 July - He writes a postcard to Bu§i|ia about his planned trip to Belényes

which

Bu§i|ia intended to arrange on horseback (this eventually really happened with some complications), furthermore about having quit smoking, but he would take along cigarettes for tips.

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