These performances of The Bells are linked by venue. When a Beatle-haired André Previn brought the LSO and Chorus to the Royal Albert Hall in July 1973, The Bells was a comparative rarity. On the other hand, Gianandrea Noseda, conducting the BBC Philharmonic and Mariinsky Theatre Chorus at the BBC Proms last July, had the advantage (or burden) of a raft of illuminating performances that other conductors had given during the intervening years – the likes of Svetlanov, Bychkov and Ashkenazy.

At Noseda’s concert last summer, I assumed that the programme was subsequently going into the studios rather than being recorded in situ, so, as regards the disc, I had hopes that the somewhat earthbound quality would be given a lift, that the details of Rachmaninov’s orchestration would be clearer, and that the whole thing would have a more focused dramatic thrust. The fact that it was recorded live is a disappointment. True, the chorus, well-drilled, sounds more forward than it did in the hall, and the two male soloists – tenor Misha Didyk and bass Alexei Tanovitski – have more presence. Nothing, however, could erase the wobble of the soprano Svetla Vassileva, and the whole performance sounds as though it could have done with a bit more in-depth preparatory work. If The Bells can musically hold its own, the patchy cantata Spring needs more of a helping hand than it gets here, and the Three Russian Songs would have benefited from more pointed orchestral detail and definition of character.p> The DVD of Previn’s 1973 performance is an evocative piece of nostalgia, since I was there on that occasion, too. But it is much more than that. Previn uses the English-language version, as opposed to Noseda’s Russian one, but it has that palpable tingle of unfamiliar music being unveiled and given new, vibrant life. It is unlikely that Robert Tear, Sheila Armstrong or John Shirley-Quirk had been involved in The Bells many times before then. Their singing is of searing emotional intensity. The chorus sing with a passion. The LSO are on top form. Brian Large’s visual direction is commendably unfussy, homing in on instruments as and when but chiefly leaving the performance to speak for itself – which it does with the utmost eloquence coupled with visceral excitement. Prokofiev’s Lieutenant Kijé (recorded in 1977) and Bernstein’s Candide Overture (1971) are bonuses but the DVD is worth it for The Bells alone.