Thank you for your comments, i will take these into consideration. Personally, I play "bells" a lot differently from what I'm doing now, but I'm not sure I like it that way. I feel bells has sort of a pingy sound and of course the opening chords would sound awful if they were pingy.
Another question, speed of these chords? Should we play them adagio like everyone else does? Or play them the same speed as when the runs start? If you look at the score, there is no indication to play the runs faster than the opening chords. Rachmaninoff himself plays the chords fairly fast, but when he starts the runs, he gets even faster. Most pianists I think play the chords very slowly and start a completely new tempo after the 4 quarter notes.