After the 1904 Covent Garden season Richter travelled to Bayreuth to conduct one cycle of the Ring. Correspondence between him and Cosima in 1903 had been largely devoted to the American performances of Parsifal, although Richter also reported very favourably on his new annual association with the Royal Opera House. His letters revealed that he had been given twenty-five orchestral rehearsals for the Ring and gave a detailed assessment of the principal singers should they be considered for Bayreuth. His letters describing the opera season of 1904 are similar, with Destinn and Ternina singled out for the highest praise. Richter did not get much pleasure out of conducting the Italian singers in the two Mozart operas:

Richter shared the 1904 Bayreuth Ring with Cosima's son-in-law (Isolde's husband) Franz Beidler. Muck shared Parsifal with another newcomer to the podium, Michael Balling, a viola player at Bayreuth since 1886, who assisted Richter over the years and would take over the Hallé after his mentor's retirement in 1911 until the First World War intervened. Richter approved highly of Balling, not just because of his innate musicianship but also because, like Richter himself, he had emerged as a conductor after years in the orchestra. The last time Richter played the viola in public (rather than chamber music at home) was on 25 February 1884 when he played in Liszt's Hungarian Coronation Mass in Pressburg Cathedral under the composer. He still maintained a great fondness for the instrument (Berlioz's Harold in Italy was often in his programmes), although Archie Camden recalled his outburst ‘Violas, what are they? Horn players who have lost their teeth.’ The young Lionel Tertis recalled Richter: