Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
School Years (1890–1903)
1903 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE where he gets acquainted with violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler, and plays the Kossuth, Dohnányis Passacaglia, his own Scherzo and left handed Study, to general acclaim. 29 October - He makes an account to István Thomán about his new connections, like Oszkár Kaufmann, met through Arthúr Halmi, who intends to acquaint him with Busoni. He still hasn’t managed to meet Strauss, now he trusts the mediation of Robert Freund (brother of Etelka Freund). He also writes his mother about his meetings and the preparations for the concert on 4 November. 31 October - Edith Pásztory, Bartoks second wife is born in Rimaszombat (Gömör-Kishont county). Her parents are the Lutheran (of Confessio Augustana) grammar school teacher Gyula Pásztory and the Greek Orthodox Kornélia Petrovics. Their daughter gets registered and baptised Lutheran by agreement. In the meantime Bartok gets a favourable offer from Budapest for an appearance at the Casino of Lipótváros, which has been rejected first by Ferenc Vecsey, then by Ernő Dohnányi. 2 November - from Berlin he travels to Vienna. There he takes a room at the Goldenes Lamm, where Dvorak also used to stay on a regular basis. (The hotel was chosen for demolition around 1970, Dvorak’s commemorative tablet included.) 3 November - He visits Lajos Dietl’s aunt. He writes a letter to his sister in Pozsony mentioning among other things that he bought patent leather shoes. 4 November - He plays Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in E flat major at the Great Hall of the Konzertverein with Ferdinand Löwe conducting. The piano is poor, yet they have success; Bartok is called back to the stage three times. 5 November - He gives an account of the previous day’s concert to István Thomán, and of having been received in the morning by Undersecretary of State for Finances, Lajos Thallóczy, who intended to 68
