Maybe the Solons of Symphony Center should consider shipping heating pads to all musicians named Richard two weeks before their scheduled Chicago appearances. First pianist Richard Goode canceled his recital because of tendinitis, and now Riccardo Chailly has bowed out of his two-week stand with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra because of arthritis.

For this week's concerts, CSO associate conductor Yaron Traub is filling in for the ailing Italian maestro. With Traub keeping Chailly's scheduled program of Ravel and Rachmaninoff, the spotlight shifted Thursday night at Symphony Center to the evening's soloist, pianist Ivan Moravec.

The Czech-born pianist has not appeared with the Chicago Symphony in a decade, and his is a welcome return. Moravec is one of the few remaining master colorists of tne keyboard, and, like his great predecessor Walter Gieseking, is at his best in Chopin and the French repertoire. In an age when flash and pyrotechnical dazzle reign supreme, his brand of civilized musicianship is a rare thing indeed.

One would expect such a finely tuned sensibility to be at home in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major and Moravec did not disappoint. Not often will one hear this work played with this kind of Gallic taste and tonal subtlety. The cool, understated virtuosity of the outer movements eschewed the standard barnstorming approach yet lacked nothing in exhilaration, with every note neatly in place.

But it was in Ravel's Adagio where Moravec's performance really shone. Without undue sentiment, his poised simplicity in the long arching cantilena was most sensitively rendered. The pianist's notes over the ensuing (and beautifully played) English horn solo gently cascading like warm summer rain.