Whether the public are thirsting for music after the long "drought", or M. de Pachmann has a particularly magnetic effect upon them, one cannot say; but, whatever the cause may have been, an enormous audience attended the Russian pianist's recital at St. James's-hall on Saturday afternoon, when there was not an available seat nor any standing room worth mentioning. The programme was entirely devoted to compositions by Chopin, the master whom above all M. de Pachmann delights to honour, and in the performance of whose works he is heard at his best. So uniformly successful was the player that it is a matter of some difficulty to know where to begin to particularize. But, without depreciating in the least his rendering of other numbers in the programme, it may be said that the nocturne in G minor, the mazurka in A flat, three of the preludes, and a group of studies from op. 10 and op. 25 were given with remarkably poetic charm. The barcarolle, the berceuse, the polonaise in A, and one or two other pieces were also played to the fullest satisfaction of the audience, who were unstinting in their applause.