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

School Years (1890–1903)

1903

CHRONICLES OF BÉLA

BARTOK'S

LIFE

17 May

- Together they listen to Meyerbeers work entitled The Prophet at the Opera. Afterwards they have dinner in the City Park.

18 May

- He writes his mother about the previous days; he is studying Dohnányi’s Passacaglia,

he

would like to perform it during the next season at as many places as possible.

19 and

21 May - He spends the afternoon and the evening with the Jurkovics’s.

23 May

- Stage rehearsal for the exam concert: the audience consisting of pupils calls him back to the stage 9 times.

24 May

- At the Opera House he watches The Wandering Dutchman with the Vaszilievics’s.

25 May

- At the Music Academy at a public exam concert he plays Liszt’s Spanish Rhapsody. Preceding the concert he finds the time to write his mother.

27 May

- He reports her a shining success: he was called back 7-8 times. Herzfeld, Mihalovich, Hubay, etc. all congratulated. Popper - who doesn’t like Spanish Rhapsody - said: “under your hands this became quite another piece”. He receives several promises for the next year. Thomán is

the only one receiving his playing stiffly; their relationship is still strained due to the Dohnányi

matter.

- On this day he goes to see the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at the Small Theatre of Krisztinaváros

with the Grubers, then he has dinner with them.

30 May

- At the Opera House he watches Meistersingers, afterwards he has dinner with the Grubers and Viktor Herzfeld.

31 May

- Lunch at the widowed Mrs Lajos Voit’s.

1 June

- He writes his mother that Mrs Gruber is a true friend who tries to straighten the path to the restoration of his good relations with Thomán, with

no great results. At this time he finished Symphonic Poem Kossuth for symphonic orchestra, which he only played for Mrs Gruber as yet. He states the titles of the 11 parts. Due to composing, he practised only one hour and a half a day, which both Thomán

and

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