In 1903 Richter celebrated his sixtieth birthday, and although he may have given up his Richter Concerts in the previous autumn, the volume of work he undertook each year showed little sign of abating. There was no Bayreuth Festival in 1903 but instead he conducted for the first time at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and only a year later his lack of Richter Concerts had been more than made up for by his commitments to the newly formed London Symphony Orchestra. His 1902–03 season with the Hallé from October to March consisted of exactly forty concerts with the New Year more or less the halfway point. The second half of the season was also sprinkled with works which were new to the city; some were even new to the conductor. There was Glazunov's Carnival Overture and a violin concerto in E flat (K. 268), then attributed to Mozart but now considered spurious, with Lady Hallé as soloist. ‘Dr Richter conducted like a giant refreshed with Christmas holidays.’ A choral and vocal concert followed on 15 January with Sullivan's Golden Legend and Elgar's new Coronation Ode on the programme.

Richter and Elgar were now close friends and the composer presented his champion with one of three full scores of Gerontius he received from Novello's; the others went to Sheffield Public Library and Granville Bantock. In it Elgar wrote, ‘To my dear friend and musical Godfather Hans Richter from his affectionate Edward Elgar, Oct. 1902.’ They were now on Christian name terms and Elgar's letters reveal the typical, natural warmth that he showed towards his closest and most trusted friends. Richter visited Elgar at Malvern on 12 January 1903 to go through the Coronation Ode and to have an early look at The Apostles, down for Birmingham that year. Alice Elgar wrote in her diary that day:

After lunch he first came into drawing room and looked round with evident satisfaction and with a gesture ‘Ach, wie gemütlich!’ E. and he went through the Ode and some of the Apostles. He was much impressed and said to me, ‘Ach, grossartig, eine so heilige Stimme, aber er ist ein ganz famoser Mann, und es ist so wunderbar (or something like that), ein so sehr ehrenvoller Mensch.’