2005 Tour Narrative
The one common denominator which encapsulates this year’s birds and music tour of the Czech Republic seems to be Rusalka. The magical misty lake on stage at the State Opera House which so exactly interpreted the vision of both composer and librettist in one of the most perfect productions (of any opera) imaginable also symbolised the recurrent image of our own Czech experience: water (with or without water nymphs but always with water birds)—in the ancient fishponds of Trebon, Dvorak’s black lake in the Sumava mountains, the landscaped lakes of Pruhonice and Lednice, the frog-filled ponds at Hlohovec, and the fishponds of Moravia. And reflected in so many mental pictures are Red-crested Pochards, Garganey, Black-necked and Great-crested Grebes, and Mediterranean Gulls; a Bluethroat in the reeds or a Little Bittern clinging to a phragmites stem and stretching more and more vertical until it almost fell over backwards; a Kingfisher surrounded by pink-and-yellow azaleas; or Cranes flying, striding, and bugling amongst the waterside vegetation.
It is difficult to evoke any species without recalling the setting, the total context of the landscape. Admittedly there were some isolated cameos—the displaying Firecrest at eye level, the Crested Tit in the pine needles, the Icterine Warbler on its nest, the Tawny Owl squeezing into the broken branch, a Penduline Tit or a Marsh Warbler in the sallows, a Scarlet Rosefinch throwing back its head and uttering its cheery song, a Grasshopper warbler vibrating its whole body in a low bush. But almost invariably an entire scene comes to mind. It is impossible to picture Black Grouse without seeing the misty meadows beneath the wooded hillside or to recall Hawfinch and not remember the castle gardens at Cesky Krumlov. Similarly our first Black Woodpecker and our only Ring Ouzel and Three-toed Woodpecker are inextricably linked to the silent vastness of the primeval beech and spruce forest of Boubin Hill—appropriately black-and-white birds in a sombre-hued world largely without colour but dramatically lit by shafts of silver sunlight.
Colourful Bee-eaters and yellow-eyed Barred Warblers immediately evoke the sunny vineyards of Moravia; Wryneck and Middle and Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers mature parkland; Golden Oriole a canopy of sunlit leaves; and Corncrake (for the lucky few) brings to mind the source of the Vltava so clearly that Smetana’s rippling music can be heard in the background. Pygmy Owl and Woodcock conjure up an entire scene of silhouetted pines and such non-avian extras as a whole family of Wild Boar trotting towards us along a forest trail. Imperial Eagle and Saker evoke the secret woodland of the Soutok flood plain which we were so privileged to visit. And even White-tailed Eagle, Honey Buzzard, Black Kite, Red Kite, Montagu’s Harrier, and Black Stork come to mind complete with their own particular context of the bluest of skies, itself an abiding image from our sequence of sunny days.
All in all, a very satisfactory selection of the birds of the Czech Republic—and some superb views in unsurpassable settings. As equally memorable as the endlessly attractive and ever-changing countryside were the charming townscapes—of Trebon, Cesky Krumlov, Prague, Telc, Mikulov—justly meriting their World Heritage status and appropriate settings for our varied selection of musical experiences from the Pipers of Trebon, Vera and Vlastimil Leysek, and the Radusov cymbalon quartet all performing exclusively for our Sunbird group to Rigoletto and Lucia de Lammermoor at the State Opera, the Aloe Trio at Bertramka, Le Corsaire at Brno, and the happy succession of folk ensembles at Vlcnov.
These first-hand experiences, together with the excellent film documentary at Janacek’s house and the taped narratives which unfolded during our time on the road, provided as comprehensive a picture of the music of the Czech Republic as any during the 15 years of the trip’s operation.
Bryan Bland
Created: 25 March 2006