How Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman Really Sounded On Inauguration Day

In case you didn't all know already, the music Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriela Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill played during President Barack Obama's inauguration was not live, but pre-recorded . It was a performed to a recording they had made earlier. It was a decision made because of the extreme cold -- all those instruments are not only impossible to keep in tune in the cold, but are extremely hard to play in the weather (and they weren't about to bring out their expensive instruments and risk them breaking). I had a feeling when I watched it that it was prerecorded as the fingering and such wasn't matching up perfectly compared to what I was hearing.

Just the same, if you happened to be live at the show, this is probably what you heard. Or not.