Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)
1 941 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE preparations like obtaining an Italian visa” - he writes. 13 February - He leaves on a four-week concert tour with his wife. 14 February - They get off the train in St. Louis (Missouri) and proceed by car to Godfrey (Illinois) of about 1,500 inhabitants, where Bartok gives a lecture and a concert at Benjamin Godfrey Memorial Hall of Monticello College. - The Music Institute of Higher Education (Music Academy) informs Béla Bartok Jnr (under No. 172/1941) that they will order the payment of Bartoks pension to him. 16 February - The Bartoks arrive in Denver (Colorado). - In his letter to Frigyes Reiner, Bartok thanks him for the hospitality in Pittsburgh and the excellent performance. He writes about the commission of Columbia University but, to be on the safe side, he asks for his recommendation - as he suggested - for an eventual secondary job at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia. (This did not bring results.) 17 February - He visits the music pupils of a school in Colorado Springs. 18 February - At the Broadway Theatre of Denver he plays Mozarts Sonata in A major, Rhapsody No. 1, and Szigeti’s transcription of For Children entitled Hungarian Folk Songs with József Szigeti, furthermore Szigeti performs Bach’s Chaconne, while Bartok plays probably Ballad of 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs under the title “Variations”, then Rondo No. 1, Bear Dance, Evening in Transylvania, and Allegro barbaro. 19 February - Travelling on, aboard the train he writes - already in the State of Utah - his first American letter to his sister in Szöllős Puszta. He sums up their American life up to then, his performances and further plans: “... we are filled with rather gloomy thoughts. How will the future be? When can we think of returning ...” 20 February - In Provo (Utah) Bartok has lunch with a Mormon family. In the evening he gives a concert at Brigham Young University. His solo programme is: Kodály ’s Transylvanian Lament and Epitaph, 24 smaller Bartok pieces (Nos. 6 to 15 of 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Petite Suite, The Nights Music, 10 pieces from Microcosmos, Suite Op. 14, and 464
