Remembering Bartók
Remembering Bartók

Summary/Abstract: John Moseley talks with Elisabeth Klein Bartók Remembered—this is the title given to an important collection of testimonies by the composer’s contemporaries, extending from family members and the inner circle of friends to pupils and occasional acquaintances.1 The German translation of the book tries to make the point even more obvious in the combined form of title-cum-subtitle, Béla Bartók im Spiegel seiner Zeit: Portraitiert von Zeitgenossen.2 Both are, of course, series titles rather than the author’s own choice. A Hungarian “forerunner” to the English-language volume, Így láttuk Bartókot, “this is how we saw Bartók,” although relegating the actual present of remembering to the subtitle (“recollections”), also emphasizes the unavoidably subjective nature of recollection.3 Remembering is not only subjective but also occasional and is often defined and influenced by circumstances. Despite this, the main interest lies in the past conjured up by memory.

• Details
• Contents