Lovestories of outstanding Transcarpathians: the greatest love of Bela Bartok

Composer Bela Bartok was a very unusual person, an artist in life and in work. His career began in Transcarpathia, in particular on May 1, 1892, in Sevliush (the city of Vynogradiv), he played his first concert when he was 11 years old.  Later, the family moved to Hungary, but life gave him a chance to return to Transcarpathia, when he came here to collect folk music material.

He can safely be called a revolutionary in music, because he combined seemingly incompatible things – the classic style and folklore. His art was very tempestuous, as was his personal life.

Bartok would easily fall in love with young and talented girls, who filled his life with joy and inspired him. Starting with fourteen-year-old Stefi Geyer to the first wife Martha Ziegler, who became his student and assisstant. 

But their marriage did not last long, because in 1923 the artist met Edita Pastori.

Dita, as everyone called her, was a young, but very talented pianist. Therefore, Bela could not but to fall in love with her or her talent. He even sent his wife and son to her homeland, but she did not tolerate it and filed for divorce herself. And two months later, a new creative family was made, and in 1924, they had their son Peter.

Edita’s father was a musician, he played the piano. And she studied at the Budapest Conservatory, which she graduated in 1921. Later, she became a student of the Music Academy, where Bartok was teaching. She could have been a known and respected pianist.   .

But she gave up her personal career, choosing the family and her husband’s work. Probably, their joint concerts they played after moving to New York were a great joy for Edita.

Despite creative successes and achievements, the financial situation of the family was very difficult. Bartók did not know how or just did not want to create a commercial music. Their friends helped them, but Bela’s health problems took all the money. Their last performance on stage took place on January 31, 1943, at Carnegie Hall, one of the concert halls of New York. The composer died on September 26, 1945 of leukemia. His wife survived him by 37 years.

So who was the great love of Bartok? Stefi, Martha, Clara, or Dita, or maybe all of them at different times. Or maybe the greatest love of Bela Bartok was his music. Because he left behind a huge heritage, a dozen of works, concerts, operas and ballets, even greater achievements were his ethnographic and folklore researches. Probably yes, music was the great love of Bartok.