# Help Please on Rachmaninoff's "The Bells"



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Eons ago I worked in a CM radio station and remember playing The Bells from the station library and liking it -- but never bothered to follow up at the time. The problem was, the recording (Philadelphia/Ormandy) was in English, which is appropriate to the Poe poem it was a setting of. Every subsequent recording I have run across to refamilarize myself with it has been in Russian -- which I presume it was written to -- but is weird to my ears. I want it in English. Anyone out there know any good English language recordings? 
Thanks.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The only one I know of in English is Leonard Slatkin's. It's a good performance. I have it on a Vox 3 disc set of Rachmaninoff's orchestral works. 

You should know that Rachmaninoff set a Russian translation of a French adaptation of the Poe poem, so when you hear it in English it's thrice removed from Poe. But regardless of language it's a unique and wonderful piece, Rachmaninoff's avowed favorite among his works.


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Here's Ormandy's recording of The Bells recorded in late 1954 with an English translation. It might be the one you remember... I do not go along as with those who don't care for this recording. This is Poe and sometimes the voices are supposed to sound a little bit weird, strange, or crazy: 'the poem has four parts to it; each part becomes darker and darker as the poem progresses from "the jingling and the tinkling" of the bells in part 1 to the "moaning and the groaning" of the bells in part 4.' I thought the orchestra sounded very good in this vintage recording Despite the pops and surface noise of the vinyl.






PART III

Hear the loud alarum bells-
Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now- now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells
Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
Of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells,bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

Part IV is even darker and more disturbing...


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## Rmathuln (Mar 21, 2018)

The recording Ormandy made for RCA is in English, but soloists totally ruin the day - avoid at all costs.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> The only one I know of in English is Leonard Slatkin's. It's a good performance. I have it on a Vox 3 disc set of Rachmaninoff's orchestral works.
> 
> You should know that Rachmaninoff set a Russian translation of a French adaptation of the Poe poem, so when you hear it in English it's thrice removed from Poe. But regardless of language it's a unique and wonderful piece, Rachmaninoff's avowed favorite among his works.


It's a peculiar thing, but while I am generally a fan of Rach, The Bells is the one work of his that completely fails to do anything at all for me. Don't really know why, and it frustrates me.


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## Rmathuln (Mar 21, 2018)

I believe the Previn ICA Classics DVD is in English though.
I am not positive though.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp;jsessionid=BD8CA97B94B97D1154BE19BAF83B780D?album_id=612237


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Thank you, everyone!


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

brianvds said:


> It's a peculiar thing, but while I am generally a fan of Rach, The Bells is the one work of his that completely fails to do anything at all for me. Don't really know why, and it frustrates me.


That's fascinating. Are you familiar with his cantata, "Spring"?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Rmathuln said:


> I believe the Previn ICA Classics DVD is in English though.
> I am not positive though.
> 
> http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp;jsessionid=BD8CA97B94B97D1154BE19BAF83B780D?album_id=612237


The reviewer on ArkivMusic says it's in English, but remarks that the words are still not always clearly audible. But that's not unusual.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> That's fascinating. Are you familiar with his cantata, "Spring"?


Nope. Didn't even know about it.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Woodduck said:


> The only one I know of in English is Leonard Slatkin's.


Thanks. I bought *this 42-track download of Rachmaninoff with Slatkin* and was listening to The Bells. It struck me oddly that it was in English. Now I know. I also have it on my Ashkenazy set, so will listen to that next. Think I might like it better sung in Russian.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

It _is_ odd that it's in English. ^ ^ ^ It's also odd that it's in Russian.  An English translation of a Russian paraphrase of Poe by Konstantin Balmont. Odd from any perspective. I have a recording on vinyl of Ormandy/Philadelphia that includes the Three Russian Songs Op. 41. Does anyone else hear the strong influence of choral scenes from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in the third movement?


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

^^^ Anything in Russian, and with bells in it to boot, sounds like Boris! But yes of course, good point. Rachmaninov at his most Russian is "very Russian indeed", here, Vespers, St.John Liturgy.

The influence of Mussorgsky in general is under-valued, I reckon....


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## robin4 (Jun 9, 2019)

I had the above when I was in high school. It is sung in English. I have NEVER heard a better interpretation.


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

robin4 said:


> I had the above when I was in high school. It is sung in English. I have NEVER heard a better interpretation.


Appears to be available on streaming sources, and as a Naxos Classical Archive mp3 release via Amazon.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Larkenfield said:


> Here's Ormandy's recording of The Bells recorded in late 1954 with an English translation. It might be the one you remember... I do not go along as with those who don't care for this recording. This is Poe and sometimes the voices are supposed to sound a little bit weird, strange, or crazy: 'the poem has four parts to it; each part becomes darker and darker as the poem progresses from "the jingling and the tinkling" of the bells in part 1 to the "moaning and the groaning" of the bells in part 4.' I thought the orchestra sounded very good in this vintage recording Despite the pops and surface noise of the vinyl.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Part III reminds me of how they used to announce an execution via a bell, I think at midnight. I need to see the rest of the text though. Do you have a link to it?


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