The Authentic Sound Podcast, hosted by Wim Winters and Stefan Pospiech, explores the research and practical application of the Whole Beat Metronome Practice in classical music. Each episode dives into insights, discussions, and examples that bring this unique approach to life for musicians and enthusiasts alike.
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Ep.43: Beethoven’s 6th Symphony (2): From Birdsong to Thunder
In Part II of our journey through Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, Alberto Sanna and I move from the quiet flow of the brook to birdsong, village dancing, the terrifying storm, and finally the return of calm.
Along the way, we explore why some of the apparently simplest passages were among the hardest for us to perform, how articulation and rhythmic weight make Beethoven’s unusually spacious tempi come alive, and how Czerny transforms orchestral colour into something astonishing on the fortepiano.
The famous bird calls and storm also bring us straight back to the central question behind this entire project: what happens when we take Beethoven’s metronome marks seriously? Far from making the music static, the whole-beat approach reveals layers of rhythm, colour, timing and physical energy that are easily lost at modern speeds.
A listening guide to movements II–V of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony—and to one of the most extraordinary storms ever written in music.
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10 Aug 2026
Ep.42: Maurice Ravel May Have a Serious Tempo Problem
Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte presents a fascinating tempo puzzle.
The first piano edition gives a metronome mark of ♩ = 80. Yet Ravel was reportedly known for playing the piece extraordinarily slowly. About a decade later, his orchestral version appeared with a very different indication: ♩ = 54.
Why did Ravel change the tempo so dramatically?
In this episode, we compare the scores, historical accounts, Ravel’s own piano-roll recording, and performances by later pianists. The result leads us into a much broader question: could Ravel’s Pavane preserve evidence of the transition from whole-beat to single-beat metronome practice around the turn of the twentieth century?
It is a small musical mystery with potentially much larger consequences for how we understand historical tempo.
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27 Jul 2026
Ep. 41: Beethoven’s 6th Symphony: The Art of Going Nowhere
Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony seems to go almost nowhere—and that is precisely its radical power.
In this first part of our whole-beat listening guide to the “Pastoral” Symphony, Alberto Sanna and I explore its opening movement. We examine how Beethoven replaces dramatic conflict with repetition, atmosphere, and the unchanging cycles of nature; why Czerny’s four-hand transcription is exceptionally difficult despite its apparent simplicity; and how whole-beat tempi restore the music’s timing, orchestral colours, polyrhythms, and sense of suspended time.
Along the way, we discuss the symphony’s historical context, its place in Beethoven’s famous 1808 concert, the difference between modern and nineteenth-century listening, and the evidence that continues to challenge the conventional single-beat interpretation of Beethoven’s metronome marks.
Want to listen to ‘our’ Beethoven symphonies 3 times for free? Go to Bandcamp (https://authenticsound.bandcamp.com/)
Or buy the 10 CD box on our website (https://www.authenticsound.org/product-page/beethoven-symphonies).
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wimwinters.substack.com/subscribe (https://wimwinters.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)
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