Famed quartet played inauguration to taped music

[Adsos Letter]

Source: SanFranciscoChronicle
By MICHELE SALCEDO, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, January 22, 2009

Whether you loved or hated the classical music played at President Barack Obama's inauguration, what you heard was a recording made two days earlier unless you were sitting within earshot of the celebrated performers.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill made the decision a day before Tuesday's inauguration after a sound check to use a previously recorded audio tape for the broadcast of the ceremonies.

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.

"They were very insistent on playing live until it became clear that it would be too cold," said Florman in a telephone interview Thursday night.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/22/national/w191249S68.DTL&tsp=1

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

1. The lies and deceptions of this administration are unforgiveable. UNFORGIVEABLE!

:sarcasm:

[Adsos Letter]

3. lol...isn't it refreshing!

[Missy Vixen]

2. There were people here bitching about Aretha Franklin's performance as well

It was much too cold for her to be singing outdoors, even if they kept her in a heated room just before the performance. Singers MUST warm up before performing.

I'm not surprised that the classical piece was recorded, either. The Super Bowl pre-records the National Anthem performance every year as well.

Julie

[Adsos Letter]

5. I'm not bitching about anything...I was wondering how that pianist

managed to play in such cold weather.

[lpbk2713]

16. I noticed she was wearing black gloves with the fingertips cut off.

Even so, it had to have hurt to beat the keys in that weather.

[Adsos Letter]

20. I noticed that also...

my daughter plays concert piano, and she was commenting upon the difficulty of having limited feeling in the fingers due to the cold. :D

[Missy Vixen]

26. I'm with you, Adsos

I can't figure out how the pianist played.

I was also wondering about Itzhak Perlman's violin and Yo-Yo Ma's cello. They are worth millions. That kind of cold can't be good for either instrument.

In the meantime, it was wonderful to hear such tremendous music, pretaped or not.

Julie

[EFerrari]

6. I said on Tuesday, how do the strings stay in tune in that weather?

Well, it was lovely anyway.

[Adsos Letter]

10. I was watching the pianist, and wondering how she could find the nimbleness ...

of fingers to perform in that weather. Still, I thought the piece was beautiful.

[EFerrari]

21. Aretha was fabulous. I'm so happy she got to do that.

:)

[Adsos Letter]

22. She looked and sounded fantastic...

I thought the whole program was exceptionally well done.

[Iggo]

4. So THAT'S why they were smiling!!!

:rofl:

[BrklynLiberal]

7. OMIGOD! Wait until pigboy and OLIEly get this news!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[DJ13]

8. It could have been worse, it could have been Brittany

[w8liftinglady]

9. it was beautiful.

[Adsos Letter]

13. I thought so to, and it was obvious that the artists were enjoying themselves immensely.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Lying bastards!

Well, we have it. The first crack in that ever-so-special Obama's armor. Not only is he not even a citizen, but his oath of office was wrong and had to be re-done but it wasn't done properly because he didn't use a Bible for the second one and we are a Christian country so they faked the music and that means what else was faked besides his birth certificate and where he was born and was that really his mother because his birth certificate was never registered and in you look real close at his skull you can see three numbers and we all know what those numbers are and that Hussein middle name is a hint to the Western world about what's next from this commie socialist pinko fraud.

Do I really need to put any smilie thingie here?

Really?

[Adsos Letter]

14. No...and thankyou for not using the "sarcasm" thingie...

I wasn't trying to tear down the performance, just posting something I found that I thought others might be interested in.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

24. Oh, I hope

you didn't think I was in any way denigrating your post. I thought it was great - we do have a "transparent" administration in place, and this is perfectly consistent with President Obama's behavior of the first few days.

I was just being silly. Please don't take offense.

OK?

[Adsos Letter]

25. No offense taken at all...

I was thanking you for not responding as someone upthread did. :hi:

[fortyfeetunder]

12. OK, so was all that music on Sunday prerecorded too?

There was a string section but appeared what glimpses of the instruments I saw were not wood...can someone enlighten me?

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I'm super pissed of that ........

..... Lee Greenwood wasn't on hand.

:sarcasm:

[Adsos Letter]

18. Who is Lee Greenwood?

[SmileyRose]

23. This guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RssIN3ustUw

[mike_c]

17. wanna bet Rush Limbaugh leads with this tomorrow...?

The sheer perfidy of those liberals!

[Adsos Letter]

19. The intelligence of liberals...

not to ruin a situation when there is a better option.

But Rush is too pig-stupid to think in those terms.

[misanthrope]

27. I wondered about that when watching Tuesday...

...I remember doing an outdoor gig in temps about ten degrees warmer than those in Washington Tuesday and it was HELL trying to keep my instrument in tune, especially with a brass nut on my guitar. I would have to adjust things on the fly, with strings going out of tune a few times per song. I'm glad it was no more than one short set but it was frustrating enough to make me never want to do it again.

[killbotfactory]

28. does this mean the inaguration didn't count!????!!11

let's take it to the super court!

[KharmaTrain]

29. That's Not Surprising Considering How Cold It Was

Metal strings aren't very happy in cold weather...especially when they've sat around for over an hour while waiting for their turn. Many of these types of performances are recorded before hand (even rock concerts) just in case the sound goes out or some other problem happens. I live near a recording studio that does mostly recording for the big venues...with so much money riding on these shows, the promoters want all bases covered...even if it means the performer can't sing or the band is too wasted to play. The show goes on.

The alternative would have been for them to play and sound off pitch...which would have been fitting for boooshie but not for President Obama.

[ColbertWatcher]

30. Nonetheless Yo-Yo Ma always plays.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0745664/trivia