Rachmaninov’s grand choral symphony The Bells charts a startling journey from birth to death in music of jubilation, passion and redemption. Vladimir Jurowski directs three Russian-born soloists and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus in this moving masterpiece based on verse by Edgar Allan Poe.

The same writer is the inspiration behind the vivid musical storytelling in Myaskovsky’s Silentium, which follows Edison Denisov’s mysterious and impressionistic Bells in the Fog. The colourful Second Concerto for Orchestra by Rodion Shchedrin, named ‘The Chimes’, evokes the bells and powerfully expressive chant of ancient Russia.