NEW YORK (AP) – Radio City Music Hall was alive with the sound of music Friday – music played by people, not the canned soundtrack that replaced striking musicians for two weeks.

The orchestra returned for Friday’s 2:30 p.m. “Christmas Spectacular” show. With the help of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Radio City Entertainment and the union representing musicians reached a tentative contract agreement Thursday to allow the 35 musicians to play again.

Minutes before the orchestra struck up the first notes of a Christmas medley, rising to the stage on a hydraulic platform, Susan Spiegler arrived with her daughters and several friends – as they do each year. “We think it’s our good luck. We would be here no matter what. We feel like it’s our karma.”

The show, which runs for 10 weeks through January, had gone on with recorded music while a mediator tried to resolve the conflict over wages and benefits. The union said the performers wanted to return to work while negotiations continued, but Radio City denied that they were locked out.

“We have reached a deal on a long-term contract that will guarantee live music at Radio City Music Hall for years to come,” union president David Lennon said in a statement Thursday night. “This is a win for the musicians, management, the city of New York and audiences from all over the world.”

The terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed by either side, pending ratification by union members this weekend.

Lennon thanked Bloomberg “for his help in bringing the parties together and his support for live music in New York City.” James Dolan, president of Cablevision Systems Corp., which owns Radio City, also thanked the mayor for providing a forum and mediator.

“We are very pleased to reach an agreement,” Dolan said in a statement.

Bloomberg said in a statement that the agreement “announces to the world the official start of New York City’s holiday season and affirms that our city will continue hosting spectacular events, and attracting countless new visitors.”

After a summer of fruitless negotiations, the labor dispute over the musicians’ five-year contract, which had expired last May, came to a head Nov. 2, when the orchestra went on strike and two pre-season shows were canceled.

Musicians said Radio City Entertainment was trying to cut their base pay of $133 per show. At the height of the Christmas season, the orchestra works as many as six 90-minute shows every day – at overtime pay beyond the first two. The musicians must play at least 12 shows a week.

On average, a musician doing 150 of about 200 shows in the run would make about $25,000; orchestra members also receive very basic year-round health benefits.

Union members said the company had agreed to keep the contract’s overtime clause, but salaries would be cut. The musicians said Radio City first offered an increase of 1.5 percent while they asked for about a 3 percent cost-of-living raise. But the company said a second orchestra would be hired, which would mean the musicians’ income would be cut in half, according to the musicians.

In an earlier statement, Radio City Entertainment said the new contract included increases in salary and benefits and fully protected the existing overtime system.

The “Christmas Spectacular,” which features the chorus-line kicks of the Rockettes dancers, is known around the world. Tickets run as high as $250.

For some, it’s a great show – with or without live music.

“We only just learned that they had not been playing. And so I guess that the live musicians are playing,” said Sandy Pine, of Chicago, who came with her husband. “If it were not live music, I guess that would not make a great difference. We would have come anyway.”

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