LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk 33 his best-known and most popular composition. The winter he spent back in the city caused his health to continue to worsen. In the summer of 1944, he re- turned to the Sageman cottage, this time with Ditta and their son Peter. Ditta was an accomplished concert pianist and needed a place to practice. Fortunately, Mrs. Sageman, a member of the Saranac Lake school board, arranged for her to use a piano at the local high school. In gratitude, Ditta gave two concerts there: one for the students and one for the faculty. It is unclear when Bartók's doctors began to suspect that he was suffering not from tuberculosis but rath- er from leukemia, for which there was no treatment at the time. We do know that he did not think much of his doctors' medical care. There came a day when he lost one of the ear plugs he wore while composing to keep out noise. Dr. Mayer, thinking quickly, pulled a plug off an earpiece from his stethoscope and handed it to him. The doctor later said that this was "the greatest good deed I did for him. It helped him more than any medical service I gave him." Bartók returned to Saranac Lake for one more stay during the summer of 1945. This time, he and Ditta rent- ed a small cabin from Maks and Ida Haar on Riverside Drive near the shore of Lake Flower. Bartók described the cabin in a letter to Peter as "very quiet but very primitive. There is electricity for lights and cooking, but already the bath water must be heated in a stove. There is a bathtub but no washbowl in the bathroom. The ice box must be fed real, natural ice (delivered every other day)." It is clear, though, that the simplicity was not a drawback but rather a feature for the composer, as it enabled him to concentrate on his music without dis- tractions. With his ability to hear complex music in his head, he did not need a piano to compose, only peace and quiet. He had a small desk next to the fireplace to work in solitude. Peter wrote that it reminded his fa- ther of the Hungarian peasant cottages he had visited years before as he collected folk songs. Béla wrote in the guestbook, "We are very happy indeed to stay in this wonderful quiet place." It was in this quiet, simple cabin that Bartók com- posed his final two pieces: his Viola Concerto, commis- sioned by the virtuoso violist William Primrose, and the Third Piano Concerto. He could hear Ditta practicing at the house next door and arranged their schedules so that he could compose when she was not playing. He kept the new piano piece a secret, saying to Peter, "I am always keeping the viola concerto on top because the one underneath is a piano concerto which will be your mother's birthday present in October." Throughout his life, Bartók was a great lover of na- ture. Mrs. Sageman recalled that he was "always looking for butterflies, worms, and what have you... Any kind of a bug." He enjoyed walks in the woods near the cabin with Ida Haar, and Peter relates that he wrote down the birdsongs he heard. Some of those songs can be heard in the slow movement of the piano concerto, played by oboe, clarinet, piccolo, piano, and xylophone. One eas- ily-identified birdsong in the piece is the rufous-sided towhee, a bird known to spend its summers in the Ad- irondacks. While not a devoutly religious man, he wrote to a friend that "if I were to cross myself I would say: in the name of Nature, Art, and Science." While he had felt in relatively good health due to the clean air and exercise he was enjoying, his fever returned near the end of that summer, a sign the leu- kemia was progressing. With the two concertos almost completed, Béla, Ditta, and Peter left Saranac Lake and returned to New York City in early September 1945. Al- most immediately his symptoms worsened and he was rushed to West Side Hospital where he died on Septem- ber 26th. Shortly before leaving for his final trip to the hospi- tal, he asked Peter to assist him with finishing the score of the piano concerto by writing barlines for the last seventeen measures he intended to compose. When Peter had finished that task, Bartók wrote the word "Vége" on the paper, the Hungarian word for "end." It is likely that this is the final word Bartók wrote. It is notable that during Bartók's exile in America he composed only four pieces, and three of those he wrote during his summers in Saranac Lake. While he came here seeking treatment for a disease for which there was no cure, he seems to have found something even better: the peace and quiet that would allow his creative spirit to reach its peak. Over the last thirty years, Historic Saranac Lake has worked to preserve and present the story of Bartók in Saranac Lake. With the help of many volunteers, and with funds raised by summer benefit concerts, the orga- nization rescued from demolition the cabin where Bartók spent his last summer. Privately owned, it is currently available to visit by calling Historic Saranac Lake at (518) 891-4606. HSL also owns a unique collection of personal items generously donated by Peter Bartók and will pres- ent this collection in the new Trudeau Building museum opening in August 2026. One of the many artifacts on dis- play will be the Wurlitzer upright piano which Ditta used for practicing. t This was the piano Ditta used to practice on in the house next door to the cottage. It will be in the museum exhibit opening in August. Photo credit: John Curtis

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