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

Great Concert Tours on Two Continents (1922–1931)

GREAT CONCERT TOURS ON TWO CONTINENTS (1 922-1 931 )

1923

2 March

- He rejects an invitation to Jenő

Hubays

music afternoon - referring to his seclusion - in a polite letter.

6 March

- He and Zoltán

Kodály prepare

a draft for a letter to Károly

Rozsnyai regarding the 20 Hungarian Folk Songs.

18 March

- He writes a letter to M. Calvocoressi

in

London regarding the English publication of The Hungarian Folk Song. - He listens to a Dutch wind quintet during the rehearsal of their concert planned for the 20th; the concert then got postponed to the 27th, but its dubious it was held at all.

25 March - On his 42nd birthday he has lunch at the Kodálys

’.

30 March

- He writes his mother about his planned concerts (only some of the plans came true).

5 April

- He travels to Kassa with Imre Waldbauer

to

give an evening of sonatas at the ceremonial hall of Hotel Schalkház.

According

to the printed leaflet the programme was Brahms’ Sonata in A major, Bartoks 2nd, Händels

D

major and C. Francks A major, but as Bartok writes: “The programme was totally wrongly printed ... it was the Sonata in D minor by Brahms, and instead of Händel

the

Bear Dance and Rumanian peasant songs”. There were quite a number of administrative and technical mistakes at the concert, which get detailed in Bartoks letter to his mother and aunt in a humorous way.

6 April

- From Kassa he returns to Budapest.

14 April

- There he reaches an agreement with the Rózsavölgyi

and

Co. firm for the publication of the piano arrangement of Rhapsody and the small orchestral score of String Quartet No. 1, and on 18 April of Suite for Orchestra No. 1.

1923 is the year of the 50th anniversary of the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda

and

the formation of Budapest as residentiary capital. The leaders of the capital plan a festive concert, and Ernő

Dohnányi, Béla Bartok,

and Zoltán

Kodály (members

of the music directory that functioned barely four years earlier) are commissioned to compose 219