Cold truth: Music was taped

They were live; what you heard wasn't.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Millions of viewers listening to the dulcet tones of the celebrated quartet of musicians at President Obama's inauguration heard a recording - not the notes the group actually played.

Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the weather was too cold for the instruments to stay in tune.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made the decision on Inauguration Day to use an audiotape of their performance that they had laid down two days earlier.

Florman says the musicians were "very insistent on playing live until it became clear that it would be too cold," making it impossible for the instruments to keep in tune. People sitting near them could hear the musicians play, but their instruments were not amplified.

"Truly, weather just made it impossible," Florman told the New York Times yesterday. "No one's trying to fool anybody. This isn't a matter of Milli Vanilli," she said of the pop duo who were stripped of a 1989 Grammy because of lip-synching.

The recording was made Sunday, to be used as a last resort. Florman said that she didn't intend to hide anything and that she just didn't think to announce it.