The s****er, elegiac tones before President Obamas oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.

The players and the inauguration organizing committee said the arrangement was necessary because of the extreme cold and wind during Tuesdays ceremony. The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked instruments and wacky intonation minutes before the presidents swearing in (which had problems of its own).

Truly, weather just made it impossible, Carole Florman, a spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said on Thursday. No ones trying to fool anybody. This isnt a matter of Milli Vanilli, Ms. Florman added, referring to the pop band that was stripped of a 1989 Grammy because of its lip-synching, making it synonymous with the practice.

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