Richter's despondent mood resulted in his complete withdrawal from musicmaking in the summer of 1909. He did not go to Bayreuth for the Ring, which was conducted by Michael Balling in his place, indeed Richter never conducted the Ring at Bayreuth again. He spent the summer months holidaying in Hungary and Lower Austria, returning to England on 10 September. For the rest of the month he was in London or Birmingham for rehearsals for the 1909 Birmingham Musical Festival, which proved to be his last. During the four-day event (5 to 8 October) he conducted Elijah, The Dream of Gerontius, Dvořák's Stabat Mater, Handel's Judas Maccabeus, Cherubini's Mass in C and Berlioz's Faust as well as some smaller choral pieces. The orchestral works included Elgar's First Symphony, Parry's Symphonic Variations, Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel and Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. The performances all drew critical praise, particularly the Elgar works in which Richter now excelled. It was fitting that his last festival included a broad and noble performance of the First Symphony followed by a superb rendition of Gerontius, the first festival performance since its disappointing premiere nine years earlier. Elgar attended both the London rehearsals and the concerts which included his works. He asked Richter:

His orchestra was essentially a mixture of the Hallé and London Symphony orchestras, the players’ names alone confirm how good the musical results must have been. There were the string players Schiever (the leader), Speelman (one of three of the same name) and Fuchs, the wind players Needham, Malsch, Schieder and a galaxy of horn players, Paersch, Borsdorf, Aubrey Brain (father of Dennis), Thomas Busby and van der Meerschen. Most of the rank and file names were now British, a tribute to his goal of establishing indigenous talent amidst the profession, and further illustrated by the fourteen vocalists, most of them British, who took solo parts in the festival.