When a great artist has proved himself supreme in the work he set himself to do, it is idle to complain because he has not done something else. It is a poor thanksgiving to say our prayers backwards. If Dr Richter had left us because of anything that had been written, there is not the reddest-handed revolutionary who would not have done public penance to bring him back. But no shadow of this kind need mar our farewells; Dr Richter is much too great a man to misunderstand the ardency of youth; was he not himself in the van of a movement that captured whole new provinces for music?

The retirement of Dr Richter from the Manchester conductorship has been expected for some little time now, so the announcement is not a startling one, though it is sufficiently serious. There is unfortunately no doubt that of late the programmes of the Hallé concerts have met with a good deal of unfavourable criticism and that a demand has been made for a greater proportion of new or recent music. … The tone of the opposition party indicates rather less than a proper sense of gratitude for what Richter has done for orchestral music in this country since he first came here as Wagner's lieutenant thirty-four years ago. In the Wagner Festival performances at the Albert Hall during that summer he proved the artistic mainstay of the event. … New life appeared to animate the orchestra, every man of whom seemed to be in a measure inspired, but it was not until two years later that his powers became fully manifested in this country. Then were established the orchestral Festival concerts which owed so much to their conductor that they soon assumed the title of Richter Concerts.