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Was it winter when Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his »Capriccio espagnol«? One can certainly vividly imagine the composer well warpped-up and seated before the fireplace as he dreamt his way to warmer regions. But whenever it was written, the work conjures up the flamenco, fiestas and mild nights under a southern sky. With their musical journey beyond the boundaries of space and time, the fantastic Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of young Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti once again show that their reputation as one of the world’s best orchestras is well-deserved. Sergei Rachmaninov’s »Toteninsel« (Isle of the Dead): is a strong contrast to Rimsky-Korsakov’s »Capriccio«. Inspired by an Arnold Böcklin painting, the composer depicts life after death in the swelling, rushing sound of infinity. And in his Seventh Symphony of 1884, Antonín Dvořák likewise portrays a different world: with dramatic conflicts and echoes of Bohemian folk songs, the music dreams of the political independence of the Czech Republic, which was still part of the Hapsburg Empire at the time.