This Chandos recording utilizes 24-bit technology, which offers a dynamic range up to 48 dB greater and 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.
Composition History
The Bells was inspired by verses from Edgar Allan Poe, freely translated by Russian symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont, which were sent to Rachmaninoff anonymously.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Rachmaninoff declared that he took pleasure in the differing moods and music of gladly chiming and mournfully tolling bells throughout his life.
Compositional Technique
The Bells features a leading 'bell song' theme that, when phrased by muted violas and punctuated by Mussorgskyan chimes, comes to sound like the Dies Irae.
Composition History
Rachmaninoff explicitly called his work The Bells a Choral Symphony, not a cantata, and worked on it feverishly in Rome in 1912-13.
Critical Reception
The St Petersburg premiere of The Bells in 1913 received unusually perceptive critical reception, with one critic noting its 'unusual clarity' and 'special force'.
Composition History
Rachmaninoff's Three Russian Songs, Op. 41, were composed in 1926 after eight years of touring America, when his original inspiration was running dry.
