Daer Igor Stravinskij

Dear Igor Stravinskij

When DANSK MUSIKTIDSSKRIFT today wishes you a cordial welcome to Denmark, this is a natural consequence of the line this magazine has followed during whole of its 34-years' existence. The appearance of its first number almost coincided with your stay in Denmark when you conducted your masterly ballet, ""Petrouchka"", at the Royal Theatre. This was in the autumn of 1925. Shortly before Mikhael Fokine had rehearsed ""Petrouchka"" with our prominent corps de ballet, and found the work and the leading dancers from our ballet at such a high level that the master himself had to come and witness it. The night of December 6th, 1925, was one of the great festival nights of our Royal Theatre, and it is in no way exaggerating to say that our performance of ""Petrouchka"" throughout the many years since then has been one of the most perfect ballet performances of the Theatre, a performance that has also aroused the greatest attention abroad. This, of course, is not due to our corps alone, as it is evident that your work possesses all the rare qualities that make it a classic performance, the true theatre, a drama of eternal worth, spontaneously inspiring the corps, from the hindmost figurant to the leading soloist, to achieve the most perfect.

In the article with which DANSK MUSIKTIDSSKRIFT paid homage to you in 1925, it was stated that your distinctive mark was a search for the utterly genuine, that you possessed a strength of which the further development should not be overlooked. - Now, a generation later, we are aware that this primordial force has kept you young and has amazed the world. It is with great admiration we note that, at an advanced age, you are also alive to the latest conquests of music and that, in recent years, you have been writing dodecaphonic music without losing the least of your artistic individuality, which is what has made you — also in this small country - an almost unreal figure, whose visit is an event just as great as that of kings and princes.

This time you come in the middle of our annual ballet and music festival, which will get an exceptional splendour from your presence. After one of your previous visits to Copenhagen you said that you would always be glad to return to this smiling city, - and we guarantee that this Danish smile will also meet you this time.