They faked it!

You will remember the 'Air and Simple Gifts' played at the Presidential Inauguration by Yo Yo Ma, Izthak Perlman, Anthony McGill on clarinet, and Gabriela Montero, a product of the Venezuelan sistema? I was wondering how people would hear it.

Turns out that 'played' was not quite the right word to choose, see here. They had recorded it two days before, and finger-synched it.  It was too cold to really play, risk of broken strings and all that. This explains the earpieces they all wore. I did wonder if they had used cheaper instruments for this outdoor gig (seems they did).