Rachmaninoff's 'choral symphony' The Bells sets Konstantin Balmont's Russian version of Edgar Allan Poe's poem, tracing a life's arc from sledge-bell exuberance through wedding joy and alarm to funereal resignation across four richly scored movements. Soloists Dmytro Popov, Kristina Mkhitaryan, and Alexander Vinogradov join the Netherlands Radio Choir and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under Karina Canellakis, bringing colour, drama, and idiomatic warmth to the score. The disc is completed by the Symphonic Dances of 1940, Rachmaninoff's last completed work, which moves from earthy rhythmic vigour through a ghostly night-waltz to a triumphant, faith-affirming close. Composed in exile on Long Island, the Dances reveal a composer still alert to new influences — jazz, Stravinsky, Ravel — while remaining unmistakably his own, and Canellakis and her Dutch forces deliver both scores with tremendous power, precision, and emotional sweep.