Have you ever wondered why classical music always seems to be performed too fast in the concert halls? Wonder no more.
Wim Winters, an organist and pianist from Belgium, challenges modern performance practice of Beethoven, Chopin and others from the Classical period via his controversial YouTube channel Authentic Sound.
Winters’ point is simple: the metronome indications of works by the likes of Beethoven have been misread for more than a century, a claim made evident by historical proof that the current tempi is up to twice as fast as the original (!)
Pianists today need physiotherapy in their attempts to follow painstaking speeds and even the fastest fall short.
Among Winters’ numerous reconstructions are Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Moonlight Sonata, at first appearing shockingly slow.
But on closer inspection, could it be that only a return to the original tempi will release the true emotional potential of the Western musical canon?
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Chapter markers:
01:34 Authentic Sound and modern performance practice
05:15 Choice of tempo and the certainty of metronome marks
08:38 The original tempo indication vs Single or Half Beat
15:13 Modern performances: even the fastest fall short
19:21 “Beethoven’s broken metronome”
21:43 Historical sources for Whole Beat
27:11 When did performance speeds increase and why?
32:58 Can you play faster than humanly possible? Win €5.000!
34:21 What is physically possible to play and perceive?
40:00 Life-long injuries, worn-out brains and loss of joy
45:14 Whole beat is natural for us
51:00 “Mozart is being killed” (1839 warning)
54:50 Cooperation with Lorenz Gadient
1:01:56 Whole Beat reviving classical music
1:09:40 “When you slow down, you play faster”
1:14:11 Paradigm shifts are initiated by outsiders
This episode featured Wim Winters & Jan-Ove Tuv and was filmed and edited by Bork Nerdrum.
The centerpiece was a reproduction of the Beethoven portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler.
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