So dear old Vladimir has departed from our midst, leaving the world poorer by one truly great artist. To us, his survivors, it is a comfort to know that his life-work was not unrequited,—he died full of earthly honour, and not without some other earthly advantages.

Among his merits, there was the very conspicuous one that besides recognising and being able to interpret the spirit of whatever music he was performing, he took the additional trouble of adding to that spirit the highest possible technical finish. He might have contented himself with giving us the spirit of a work plus wrong notes, or the right notes only without the spirit. But his genius and will power combined in rendering both, so that a Pachmann recital was not only a musical treat but a moral lesson as well.

That his high artistic aspiration and gentle nature may in their altered condition meet with their well deserved reward in eternal peace and superhuman happiness, is the earnest wish of his thousands of mundane worshippers.