Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)
1939 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE sketches the impossible circumstances of the Sonatas performance in Venice, saying: “I will not come to play the piano in this country ever again!” (He gives three more concerts 8 months later!) Worrying about his manuscripts placed in Basel, he arranges for Mrs Müller- Widmann to send them to London, to the Boosey and Hawkes firm (also notifying them), because Universal renounced in their favour the publication of new works, and there the manuscripts are farther from Germany. 12 April - He writes his new agent Andor Schulhof, but on 14 April - already from Budapest - on the basis of the old request, he still inquires about the Scheveningen concert with Antonia Kossar. 15 April - He writes Shulhof again. 17 April - In his letter to Mrs Kossar (mistakenly dated 1929) he accepts the 30 June date for Scheveningen, gives a programme proposal for an eventual concert in Hilversum, and puts it again on record that from now on he will be represented by Andor Schulhof. - He also writes PRS and Boosey & Hawkes. 23 April - At Radio Budapest he plays pieces for two pianos by Mozart and Debussy with his wife for a fee of 400 pengős. 25 April - He gives several private lessons in his home, then has a meeting with Andor Schulhof s agent Miss Saigo. 27 April - He writes is Boosey & Hawkes and Jenő Deutsch. He presses the Budapest Opera House for the missing accounts, worried that his allowance might have been paid to Vienna against his wishes. He also requests that Béla Balázss share be also granted to him according to the agreement. 29 April - At 8:30 a.m. he receives Jenő Deutsch at his flat, at 10 a.m. participates in an orchestral rehearsal at the Radio, then writes a letter to Hans Walter Heinsheimer at Columbia University of New York. 30 April - At Radio Budapest he plays Rhapsody with the orchestra of the Opera House conducted by Ernő Dohnányi. The transmission is also 440
