The Bells

An anonymous admirer sent Rachmaninoff a copy of Konstantin Balmont's free Russian rendering of Poe's poem, and he set it in Rome in 1913, working in the room on the Piazza di Spagna that Tchaikovsky had once occupied. The four movements follow four bells — sleigh bells, wedding bells, alarm bells, funeral bells — through a life, scored for three soloists, chorus and large orchestra. He conducted the premiere in St Petersburg on 30 November 1913 and considered it, to the end, his best work.