BARTÓK, Béla (1881-1945)

BARTÓK, Béla (1881-1945)
Autograph letter signed (‘Bartók’) to Philip Heseltine, [postmarked London], 12 March 1922.
In English. One page, 112 x 88mm, on a postcard, autograph address panel on verso. Provenance: Sotheby’s, 1 December 1993, lot 1993.

Bartók writes to the notorious English composer Peter Warlock about his tour of Wales and a possible meeting. ‘You may inquire after me at the Music House (University College of Wales) in Aberystwyth, if you wish to come to the concert […] I can come to Abermule only after the concert which will take place on the 16th…’.

Bartók toured France and Britain in 1922; he performed in London, Liverpool and Aberystwyth. Heseltine – better known by his pseudonym Peter Warlock – had written essays on Bartók’s music and had published an article by Bartók on folk music in The Sackbut. Heseltine did not attend the concert in Aberystwyth but Bartók did indeed stay with him at Cefn Bryntalch in Wales.