Tour Narrative
Our new Birds and Music tour to Slovakia certainly started with a bang. After pre-breakfast Kingfishers, Gray Wagtails, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, the first bird we looked at was Imperial Eagle—an adult and a juvenile low overhead, offering excellent photographic opportunities. Needless to say, 113 species later, the eagle was voted Bird of the Trip. Despite the unusually cold weather for this year’s Indian Summer in Levo?a festival, other specialties quickly followed, including Gray-headed, Green, Great Spotted, and Middle Spotted Woodpeckers; lovely White-headed Long-tailed Tits; Spotted Flycatcher; Nuthatch, and Great Gray Shrike. Nor did we ignore the most famous non-avian speciality of the area: the celebrated Tokaj wines. Our private tasting in the three miles of barrel-lined tunnels, carved centuries ago as a hideaway from invading Turks, left us all with a warm inner glow, whatever the thermometer might say.
Our second full day was the epitome of a WINGS birds and music tour: spectacular birds in the morning and a memorable concert in the evening. The Senné ponds held a wealth of waterbirds, from Spoonbill and Purple Heron to Temminck’s Stint and Wood Sandpiper. Highlights included Spotted Crake, Hobby, Peregrine, a perched Goshawk, Penduline and Bearded Tits, Ruff, Little Gull, Black Tern, 150 Great Egrets, Red-backed Shrike, and four species of grebes in the same field of view. Even our stop for restrooms and money-changing facilities provided Crested Larks, a flock of Cranes overhead, and another Imperial Eagle being mobbed by Ravens. Bidding farewell to our local guide and transferring to our base for the remaining five nights of our stay, we arrived in the UNESCO world heritage site of Levo?a with its Gothic townhouses, churches, and ancient wall in time to shower, sample more satisfying Slovakian cuisine, attend a talk by festival director David Conway, and enjoy a faultless performance by the Czech Stamic Quartet of works by Smetana and Schulhoff and, together with Ivo Kahanek, Schumann’s opus 44 Piano Quintet.
The cold weather persuaded us to have a cultural morning the following day. Spis Castle (another UNESCO world heritage site, and at over four hectares the largest castle complex in eastern Europe) held birds new for the trip, including several we did not see elsewhere (Northern Wheatear, Dunnock, Siskin, Yellowhammer), plus the delightful Little Souslik. The monastery village of Spisska Kapitula provided Greenfinches and ubiquitous Black Redstarts and Tree Sparrows, and our walk from there to our lunchtime restaurant in the woods yielded Common Redstart and Stonechat.
Arriving back at our hotel at 1:45, we had time to change and drive to the spectacular Dardanelles summerhouse (an outstanding monument of rococo architecture) in nearby Makusovce for an amazing lieder recital by Klara Kolonits, a soloist with the Hungarian National Opera in Budapest. There was also the option of relaxing or sightseeing in Levo?a and another pre-concert talk at 6:00 pm. At 7:00 we were all gathered again in the attractive 200-year-old theater for another concert by the Stamic Quartet, one of Europe’s leading chamber ensembles, this time playing works by Dvorak, Ives, and Schumann. The day was rounded off with dinner at The Three Apostles.
A leisurely walk through the Levo?ske hills the next morning produced both target birds—Spotted Nutcracker and Black Woodpecker—with a supporting cast of Sparrowhawk, a flock of seventy Stock Doves, Mistle Thrush, Willow Tit, Treecreeper, and a mixed flock of Serins, Siskins, and Yellowhammers. After an hour’s rest and ecuperation back at our hotel—or some more birding from the town walls (Hawfinch, Fieldfare)—we gathered again to view the magnificent 500-year-old carved altars by Master Paul in the church of St. James, followed by a light lunch, and the option of a recital by the exciting young Czech pianist Ivo Kahanek with works by Schumann and Chopin, plus Klein and Martinu; the tantalizing alternative was more birding with Martin in the Levo?a hills, where Crested Tit was the star attraction. Dinner was followed by a moving and thrilling cello recital by Julian Lloyd Webber, a satisfying close to another day of birds and music.
A pre-breakfast return to the town walls gave us another opportunity to scope Hawfinches and Fieldfares (with a mammal bonus of Red Squirrel), and our morning walk in the Slovak Paradise ensured that the whole group caught up with Crested Tit when a particularly obliging individual performed at close eye-level height. Equally engaging were our first Dipper and a Goshawk. Lunch at the Hotel Stela was followed by Jonathan Powell’s recital of works by Suchó?, Feinberg, and Rachmaninoff; afternoon tea in a beautifully restored medieval house; an evening concert of works by Beethoven, Zagar, Godar, and Zemlinsky by the Aperta Trio; and supper at our hotel.
Our final day brought a rise in temperature, but with clouds and intermittent drizzle. Even so, this was our last chance to visit the High Tatras and to find a perched Three-toed Woodpecker. Our local guide led us through the attractive beech and coniferous woodland of Tatranska Javorina to the alpine zone with its chamois-dotted slopes and Dipper-decorated mountain stream, where we finally achieved our goal: a Three-toed Woodpecker clamped on to the trunk of a close pine. What’s more, at the same spot was a completely unexpected and exciting extra: the equally scarce and much sought-after White-backed Woodpecker, a fitting reward for our effort and the grand finale of our birding quests.
After showers, a quick change, and a three-course meal, we settled in to the Evangelical Church to finish as we’d started, with a big bang: the 52-strong Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra with Julian Lloyd Weber performing Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Schumann’s Second Symphony, followed by a reception given by the mayor in the Congress Hall, with the opportunity to discuss the performances and to say goodbye to all the musicians who had so splendidly entertained us at .
The intimate aspect of the festival gave it a wonderfully human scale. The right note was set opening night when we received our personalized programs. A typical incident was when one of us expressed her appreciation of the Scriabin sonata Jonathan Powell had played as an encore and wished that he had included more in his program. She hummed a snatch of her favourite. “Ah, number 4,” said the celebrated composer and pianist—and despite being exhausted and still dripping with sweat after his virtuoso two-hour performance, he took her back into the Congress Hall for a private recital.
It was also satisfying to sit just seven feet in front of Julian Lloyd Weber, a chance to appreciate fully every nuance of his sensitive playing. In short, the Levo?ske Babie Leto was a satisfying mix of superbly performed familiar works and completely unfamiliar works, some of which were attractive revelations. And let’s hear it again for the perched Nutcrackers and woodpeckers, the not-so-shy Spotted Crake, the chubby Dippers, the nine species of tits, and—most of all—the low-flying Imperial Eagles.
-Bryan Bland
Created: 14 December 2010