PUPIL AT THE ROYAL HUNGARIAN MUSIC ACADEMY

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18 SEPTEMBER 1899, BARTÓK’S LETTER TO HIS MOTHER WITH HIS CLASS SCHEDULE AT THE MUSIC ACADEMY AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS IN BUDAPEST.

PUPIL AT THE ROYAL HUNGARIAN MUSIC ACADEMY

(1899–1903)

When my education at the Gymnasium (high school) was concluded the question arose at which musical academy I should continue my studies. In Pozsony (Pressburg), at that time, the Vienna Conservatorium was considered the sole bastion of serious musical education, but I took Dohnányi’s advice and came to Budapest where I€became a pupil of István Thomán (in piano) and of the Brahmsian Hans Koessler (in composition) at the Royal Music Academy between 1899 and 1903. I started studying with great enthusiasm Wagner’s works, till then unknown to me — The Ring, Tristan, The Master Singers — and Liszt’s orchestral compositions. […] I did no composing, however, and at the Academy of Music was considered only a first-class pianist.

(Autobiography by Bartók, 1923)