the bad news

[calimac]

Turns out that at the inaugural concert interlude we were listening to Milli Vanilli. ("This isn't a matter of Milli Vanilli," said a spokeswoman. Oh, yes it is.) And that's what the buds in their ears were for.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Milli Vanilli didn't do the actual singing of the recordings they lip-synched to; these musicians did the actual recording.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Lip-synching to someone else's recordings is an established amateur art form. I've seen kids win class talent contests with it.

But whether it's your own recording or someone else's -- it's not telling people that you're doing it that's the problem.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

This quote from the Huffington Post article is telling:

"The temperature hovered around 30 for the ceremony on the Capitol steps, too cold for McGill's clarinet, Ma's cello or Perlman's violin to offer true pitch. But the cold played havoc with the piano, which can't hold tune below 55 degrees for more than two hours, Florman [the inaugural committee spokesperson] said."

I liked the piece they played (which I gather is a combination of original composition and arrangement of sundry musical Americana) and have no problem with the synching -- I found the music quite moving in its context, an effect that would have been ruined if badly out-of-tune instruments had been broadcast.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Recordings are a legitimate art form, and on occasions practical considerations may make them preferable.

Pretending that you're playing live when you are not, is not legitimate.

Merchandising

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Order now for the original recording of, Itzhak Perlman,, Gabriela Montero,Yo-Yo Ma, and Anthony McGill.
Not a clever simulation but the real deal, as heard by millions of people around the world.

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

Well, that explains why the wood cello and not the carbon fiber on -- since it wasn't going to be micced, it didn't matter that it couldn't hold in tune. I admit, I did wonder about the clarinetist as well, since I know you do need to warm up the clarinet (and its reed) as well.

But Yeah... if it really was too cold for the real thing, why not just play the recording and have the musicians sit/stand before the audience (with the instruments) while their work was put forth? Hmmm... maybe because since there was a real live orchestra on site some might have wondered about one live and one not.

I'm only mildly disappointed to learn of the fictive performance.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

So now they're going to have to play the music again, for a small audience of Chief Justice Roberts, President Obama, and some reporters.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

LOL!

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

That explains why they all had some sort of earplug, which I noted as we were watching. I was wondering about how well the instruments would keep their tuning in that cold.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

And for that matter, each of them should have been in a different helicopter.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

If anybody has ever wondered why the French (for example) have a long tradition of outdoor performances by wind orchestras, this could serve as a lesson. The again I don't see Berlioz' Symphonie funèbre et triomphale as suitable for an inauguration, or at least for Obama's.

What I wonder is -- couldn't the organizers have admitted up front that this wasn't the "real thing" going on live? Having it come out after the fact is disspiriting, rather like the two Olympics ceremony hoaxes -- the better-known of which may be a pretty little girl miming on behalf of another little girl, with a superior voice, who had been deemed insufficiently pretty.

[margdean56.livejournal.com]

I can't help thinking that the organizers "admitting it up front" (especially from the podium!) would have been too distracting, as would the spectacle of unmoving performers while a recording was played. It would have distracted from the enjoyment I genuinely got from the piece.

YMMV, of course.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Why should the performers have had to sit there unmoving? They could have been telecast, either from a previously-made AV recording, or live from indoors.