New Year’s Eve programs at the NSO are always special affairs, not only for their spirit of jollity and good cheer, but for the unusual repertory that often comes as part of the package. This year, in an all-Russian program, bells are a featured theme. Bells are part of the Russian national soul. They have held a special fascination for the Russians for centuries, and they seem to pervade their daily lives to a degree greater than in most other cultures. The featured work on this program is Rachmaninoff’s 35-minute setting for chorus, vocal soloists and orchestra of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Bells. Different kinds of ringing, tingling and tolling conjured up in purely instrumental terms portray various stages in man’s life. Bells are also a feature of the great Coronation scene from Mussorgsky’s huge opera Boris Godunov, widely regarded as the great Russian opera.