  The partition function of the W_N minimal model CFT is computed in the large
N 't Hooft limit and compared to the spectrum of the proposed holographic dual,
a 3d higher spin gravity theory coupled to massive scalar fields. At finite N,
the CFT contains additional light states that are not visible in the
perturbative gravity theory. We carefully define the large N limit, and give
evidence that, at N = infinity, the additional states become null and decouple
from all correlation functions. The surviving states are shown to match
precisely (for all values of the 't Hooft coupling) with the spectrum of the
higher spin gravity theory. The agreement between bulk and boundary is
partially explained by symmetry considerations involving the conjectured
equivalence between the W_N algebra in the large N limit and the higher spin
algebra of the Vasiliev theory.
