The snow-clad Tatras form an attractive backdrop to this Black Grouse lek south of Kraków. Photo: Bryan Bland
Now in its twelfth year, The Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival has achieved fame beyond the borders of Poland. Our tour will sample some of the many delights this Warsaw based Festival has to offer before we venture further a-field to visit the world-famous Biebrza marshes and Bialowieza forest, haunt of many wonderful species such as Elk, European Bison, rare woodpeckers, Hazel Hen, Pygmy Owl, and Nutcracker.
From there we head south to Kraków, the capital of Poland until 1596 and an exquisitely beautiful city — small enough to walk around in twenty minutes and still completely encircled by a broad open area of the former moat, now grass and trees with breeding Fieldfares. Old churches and museums abound and the architecture is endlessly photogenic.
Close by are the beautiful Carpathian Mountains, which should still be snow-covered, forming an attractive backdrop to the peat bogs where we’ll hopefully watch Black Grouse, Great Grey Shrike, and Rough-legged Buzzard. The music is similarly wide-ranging — not just Beethoven but (in 2007) Brahms, Penderecki, Bruckner, Fauré, Haydn, Mahler, Mozart, Salieri, Schubert, Stravinsky, Webern, and Wagner. In addition to the festival offerings, we’ll enjoy private concerts and fine singing in a Russian Orthodox church near the Belarus border plus Vivaldi and Chopin in Kraków.
NB: The music program for 2008 has not yet been announced, so the typical itemised details here refer to the concerts on our previous tours. As the festival is always an Easter event this tour is not offered in years when Easter falls early.
Day 1: The tour begins with a flight from London to Warsaw, arriving in good time to attend (in 2007) a concert performance of Verdi’s Otello in the National Opera House. Night in Warsaw.
Day 2: Traditionally, Sunday offers concerts at midday and in the afternoon as well as the evening. In 2007, we enjoyed a recital of Szymanowski songs in the lavish surroundings of the Grand Hall of the Royal Palace, between Beethoven string quartets in the Chamber Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic, and more Beethoven (plus Richard Strauss) in the main concert hall. In the morning we’ll bird in several of Warsaw’s city parks for Syrian (and other) Woodpeckers and woodland birds.
Day 3: Most of the day we’ll spend exploring the River Narew marshes near Modlna and the River Bug at Popowo in the hope of finding Whooper and Bewick’s Swans, White-tailed Eagles, and various waders. We’ll have a late lunch at our hotel and then we’ll attend an afternoon concert (previously the Shanghai Quartet in the Royal Castle playing Haydn’s “Sunrise’, Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden’, and Beethoven’s “Harp’) before taking dinner at our hotel and another concert in the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall (in 2007 Paavo Jarvi conducting Mahler’s symphony no 9). Night in Warsaw.
Day 4: A visit to Chopin’s birthplace at Zelazowa Wola should combine birds and music simultaneously as Chopin’s music is relayed to us while we study an assortment of finches in the grounds before continuing to the Kampinoski National Park for more woodland birds such as Black Woodpecker. This will be followed by an afternoon concert in the Royal Castle (previously Rudolf Buchbinder, Nelson Goener or Alexander Kobrin playing Beethoven, Chopin or Brahms) and an evening in the Philharmonic Hall (Sinfonietta Cracovia playing Beethoven, Ginastera, and de Falla, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic playing Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev or Warsaw Philharmonic playing Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust). Night in Warsaw.
Day 5: A morning visit to Raszyn fish ponds will provide both waterbirds and woodland species ranging from Black-necked Grebe to Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Short-toed Treecreeper, and Brambling. Then after lunch in the hotel we’ll have an afternoon concert in the Castle or in the Polish Radio Concert Studio which previously included Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, Penderecki’s Clarinet Concerto, and Shostakovich’s Trio for violin, cello, and piano followed by a transfer to the concert hall where previously we have been treated to the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra playing Brahms’s second symphony and works by Shostakovich and Lutolawski. Night in Warsaw.
Day 6: Once more a familiar pattern of birding in the morning with a visit to Laki Kazunski meadows and the Wisea river followed by some city sightseeing and a tour of the apartments in the Royal Castle, including the Canaletto Room, then a mid-afternoon maim meal at one of Warsaw’s fine restaurants, and an evening concert in the Philharmonic Hall or maybe an opera at the Opera House. Night in Warsaw.
Day 7: Leaving Warsaw we’ll break our journey at Drozdowa Manor House, the home of Lutolawski, where on our last visits we have enjoyed a private concert by a quartet or a chamber group playing Bach, Gluck, Vivaldi, Elgar, Handel, Telemann, Purcell, Corelli, Pachelbel, Wieniawski, and of course Lutolawski. After some birding in the grounds (last year a pair of Black Woodpeckers at a nest hole were particularly obliging) we’ll continue to Biebrza marshes where we should be greeted by Cranes, wildfowl galore from Garganey to Bean and White-fronted Geese and maybe a grazing Elk. Night in Goniadz.
Day 8: After another morning birding in the Biebrza marshes looking for species ranging from Lesser and Greater Spotted Eagles to Penduline Tit and Red-necked Grebe, we’ll drive to the Bialowieski forest to look for more woodpeckers and check in to our hotel in time for an optional excursion to look for Pygmy and Tengmalm’s Owls before dinner. Night in Bialowieza.
Day 9: Easter Sunday in the Bialowieski forest is always exciting with Hazel Hen, Nutcracker, Lesser Spotted Eagle, Three-toed, White-backed, Black, and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers and European Bison all possible. A welcome break during the morning will be magnificent singing in Hajnowka Russian Orthodox church famous for its choirs and CD output. Again, we can finish the day with an optional search for Pygmy and Tengmalm’s Owls. Night in Bialowieza.
Day 10: A final morning in the strictly protected core area of the forest should give us another opportunity to catch up on any species missing so far such as Brambling, Crested Tit or Bohemian Waxwing before we drive to Kazimierz Dolny, the “Pearl of the Polish renaissance’. Night in Kazimierz Dolny.
Day 11: After enjoying the architecture of this attractive town and a spot of birding by the River Vistula, where Goosander, Black Stork, Goshawk, Osprey, Oystercatcher, Kingfisher and even Otter have delighted us in the past, we’ll drive to Kraków for more history and architecture in the old town and at Wawel castle. Hopefully in the evening we’ll enjoy Vivaldi and Mozart in the gilded glitter of one of the beautiful baroque churches. Night in Kraków.
Day 12: Today will be devoted to the Carpathian experience. We’ll start at the atmospheric Podczerwome peat-bog where the dramatic snow-clad Tatras form a photogenic backdrop to a Black Grouse lek and where we may see Great Grey Shrike, Rough-legged Buzzard, and various harriers. The woodland there could give us a final chance for Crossbill, Firecrest, and Crested Tit. Nearby we have a chance of Dipper and Grey Wagtail whilst Chocholow wooden village will transport us back several centuries. We can then continue to the mountain resort of Zakopane (or if we wish into Slovakia) before heading back to Kracow and a magnificent Chopin and Liszt recital in the Fontana chamber of Pod Gruszka ‘the most beautiful room in Poland’.
Day 13: Within an hour’s drive (just outside Auschwitz and Birkenau) are the Jankowice gravel pits and Spytkowice fishponds, offering a feast of wildfowl and waders, including hundreds of Ruff in dramatic breeding plumage, plus Red-crested Pochard, Garganey, Bittern, Osprey, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gulls, Penduline Tit, and the first White Storks and other early summer migrants. Then back to Kracow for an evening in the Jewish quarter with lively klezmer music and another meal of fantastic soup, succulent meat, and a mouth-watering dessert. Night in Kraków.
Day 14: A late afternoon flight will allow us to offer the option of personal sightseeing, shopping, photography, and museum visiting in beautiful old Kracow or a visit to the celebrated Wieliczka salt mine (a listed UNESCO monument, and the only place in the world where mining has been continuous since the Middle Ages). The tour concludes with a flight from Kracow to Warsaw and on to London.
Updated: 27 April 2007
Prices
- 2009 price about $6,580
- Single Occupancy Supplement $580
Notes
This tour is limited to 16 participants with two leaders. Participants who prefer to meet the group in Warsaw should contact the WINGS office. Tour price includes good tickets for all concerts, recitals, opera, ballet, etc.
This tour is organized by our British company, Sunbird.