[..]

Next day, in the church in Meslay, Richter again performed for a small circle of friends. As good fortune would have it, I had an opportunity to chat with him at length in the nearby tavern about Kocsis's concert the previous night. "Zoltán is a great musician", he said—these were his very words—"and I love and admire him. Benedetti Michelangeli is perhaps the best pianist of our time, but Kocsis is already a greater artist".
In the village church Richter played Bach by candlelight. Nothing could disturb the atmosphere of reverence. When latecomers knocked, he waited patiently for them to be seated, but not even the intermittent noise of people coming and going could have interrupted his playing. Two altar-boys, sitting sideways, were swinging their legs. Bach himself must have played the organ in similar surroundings, and with similarly down-to-earth sublimity.