Deny xmlrpc.php file but don't log the failed requests

I added this to .htaccess of a WordPress site:

<files xmlrpc.php>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</files>

It works, when someone tries to access http://example.com/xmlrpc.php, this message is displayed:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /xmlrpc.php on this server.

But still, the log displays (less /var/log/apache2/error.log):

[Thu May 02 10:02:03.316061 2019] [access_compat:error] [pid 19467] 
[client 1.2.3.4:49409] AH01797: client denied by server 
configuration: /path/to/xmlrpc.php

How to deny access to xmlrpc.php (possibly from .htaccess) but prevent it to appear in the Apache logs?

from Deny xmlrpc.php file but don't log the failed requests