A Context for Bela Bartok on the Eve of World War II: The Violin ...

epercussions Spring-Fall 1996
Bence Szabolcsi, the critic arguably closest to Bart6k and
KodaIy, agrees with this view of Bart6k's position in his review,
significantly the only report by a musician that even
acknowledges the concert's political implications.44 Furiously
trying to throw water on the partisan flames fanned
by Gondolat and threatening to consume Bart6k, Szabolcsi
declares:
It is a fatal mistake to believe that one can fulfill the command of
[Bart6k's and Kodaly' s 1 art by accepting any kind of political program.
Everyday politics is a very broad and very. narrow test tube <strong>for</strong>
Bart6k and Kodaly. To be a people, to grow into a unified nation, to
rise into a free country ... all these things take priority in the requirements
of Bart6k's and Kodaly's credo; but beyond all this and in the
service of all this their command requires greatness, freedom, independent
opposition to the world of slavery, a consciousness, a bravery
that does not exist anywhere in the world at this time except <strong>for</strong>.
in them. 45
However anomalous Bart6k's participation on 13
November may have been, it indicates both how far he had
corne from his years of withdrawal in the face of indifference
earlier in the decade, and the extent of his desire to
maintain a palpable presence in Hungary. At this time
Bart6k also returned to concertizing in Hungary with the
Rhapsody op. 1, his old standby in the out-of-date
Hungarian national style of the nineteenth century. Now
that Bart6k was feeling a sense of sympathy and support
from a greater number of Hungarians, perhaps he was
ready to return the favor by adopting more congenial terms
44. Although Demeny's inclusion of reviews is usually admirably complete,
he included only one that mentions Bart6k's participation in the
Magyar Muzsa concert. pus review is an anodyne account by Dezso
Szab6 from Szabo Dezso Ujabb Miivei (Dezso Szab6's recent works), nos.
34-35 (December 1937-January 1938); reprinted in Demeny, "Bart6k <strong>Bela</strong>
palyaja dele16jen," 632. It is odd that although Szabolcsi was one of the editors
of Demeny's volume, Demeny did not include Szabolcsi's review of
the concert written <strong>for</strong> Magyar Dal (Hungarian song).
45. Magyar Dal, nos. 7-9 (October-December 1937).
45