Dmytro Popov (tenor), Anna Samuil (soprano), Vladislav Sulimsky

Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Dmitri Kitayenko

Rachmaninov: The Bells, Op. 35
Taneyev, S: Cantata: Ioann Damaskin (John of Damascus), Op. 1

Inspired by the American poet Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), the symphonic poem The Bells was written in 1913. Its four parts describe different features of bell ringing: children’s sleigh bells in the first section, the wedding bells of a young couple in the second, alarm bells for a misfortune in the third, and mourning bells in the fourth. Rachmaninov uses the text version by Konstantin Balmont (1867–1943), who freely rewrote Edgar Allan Poe's original. Rachmaninov adeptly avoided the direct emulation of bell sounds through carillons and similar percussion instruments.