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This chapter examines the aspects of the Viola Concerto that may, in the future, be developed in ways that lead to a more authentic version of the work. By discussing the work of the eminent Hungarian musicologist, László Somfai, on Bartók's compositional processes one can extrapolate on what the composer may have done in subsequent drafts of the Viola Concerto. In his Béla Bartók: Composition, Concepts, and Autograph Sources, Somfai recreates the steps followed in other works from first drafts to final drafts, and in his contribution to the facsimile edition of the manuscript, he outlines the probable order in which the various parts of the sketch were added. A bar by bar comparison of the first draft and engraver's copy of the Second Violin Concerto demonstrates the kind of changes that may have occurred had Bartók lived long enough to take the Viola Concerto to the same stage.

This chapter discusses Béla Bartók's concerts and other musical activities during the years 1936–1938. Bartók gave several performances of his Second Piano Concerto in Britain and Holland in early 1936. The first was with Sir Henry Wood at the Queen's Hall in London. As he was appearing in Utrecht the following day, he travelled by air for the first time, flying to Rotterdam in a KLM Fokker XXII twenty-two-seater plane. He returned to England for a duo recital with Zoltán Székely in the Rushworth Hall, Liverpool and the Second Concerto in Birmingham, with the BBC Midland Orchestra conducted by Leslie Heward. He also delivered the inaugural lecture at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This chapter also considers some of Bartók's compositions during the period, including Music for String Instruments, Percussion and Celesta; the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion; Contrasts; and the Second Violin Concerto.

This chapter discusses Béla Bartók's concerts and other musical activities during the years 1942–1945. The bulk of the composition of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra took place between August 15 and October 8, 1943. A diverse range of folk sources is brought into play in the concerto, referencing many of the cultures from which Bartók had collected in the course of his life. At the heart of the Concerto for Orchestra lies the “Elegia” described by Bartók as a “lugubrious death-song”: an elegy arguably for his mother, for Hungary, and for humanity. This chapter analyses the Concerto for Orchestra and considers the performances of Bartók's other compositions during the period, including the Second Violin Concerto. It also reflects on Bartók's various illnesses, his depression, and his death on September 26, 1945.