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

World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)

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CHRONICLES OF BÉLA

BARTOK'S

LIFE

He makes a calculation before leaving, according to which 2,720 pengős of

ready cash remain at home. Then he leaves for Naples.

2 April

- In Naples he stays at hotel Santa Lucia. He writes from here to Paul Sacher and to Mrs Müller-Widmann,

among

other things, of having a feeling that he should have done more for his mother but it’s too late now. (These are totally unjustified qualms of conscience, as he has been the moral and financial mainstay of his mother and her sister Irma Voit

all

his life.)

3 April

- He leaves Naples on his second American tour on board of the ship Rex.

11 April

- He arrives in New York which he leaves the same night for Washington.

13 April

- At the Washington Library of Congress he gives the first concert of his second American tour with József

Szigeti, playing

Rhapsody No.

1, Sonata

for Violin and Piano No. 2, Debussy’s Sonata, and Kreutzer

Sonata.

15 April

- He gives a concert in Huntingdon (Pennsylvania) organised by a resident, his former pupil Dorothy Parrish. He plays two pieces by Kodály and

works by Bartok.

16 April

- He gives a private lesson to Dorothy Parrish, then in the evening a lecture on folk music at a College.

17 April

- In Pittsburgh he plays pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and Bartok with violinist Francis Arányi,

then

travels through Cleveland to Chicago, where on 18 April he takes a room at Hotel Stevens.

19 April

- In Chicago he plays from Microcosmos at the Wrigley Arts Club. He goes to see the Origins of Modern Art exposition, then returns to New York where he stays at Hotel Buckingham.

21 April

- In New York he plays Rhapsody No. 1 with József

Szigeti.

22 April

- Lecture and concert at Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts, Bostons suburb).

23 April

- At Casimir Hall of Philadelphia he performs Rhapsody No. 1 452