In today’s media flood, “producers” of information like to attach a new, fantastic, maybe even scandalous statement to everything and thus get into the limelight. Béla Bartók’s life, work and humanity were brilliant in themselves, so it is not necessary to add any false statements to make his brilliance shine brighter, because to do so would only make it fainter.

This book presents Béla Bartók based on facts and only on facts. Based on the facts and exploring and presenting all known relevant moments in accordance with the facts. The life of every person is mostly characterized by their actions, the work done, the thoughts described, the good, or indeed the bad, contributed. The book, although a factual list which may seem dry because of its genre, presents to the reader, better than anything and anyone, the composer, the music academy teacher, the musicologist collecting and organizing folk songs, the concert performer, the father, the uncompromising Hungarian who faithfully loves his homeland, and the nature loving man.

Gábor Vásárhelyi