To escalate the competition between Tracy and Jack in this episode, Tracy gives a large donation to the New York Philharmonic so that they will substitute the theme to "Sanford and Son" for their usual classical music program at a concert that Jack is attending. Philharmonic musical director Alan Gilbert appears in this scene as himself. Alec Baldwin, who plays Jack, is in his real life the host of the radio program "New York Philharmonic This Week"; in mid-2012, New York Philharmonic announced they had received a $1 million donation from Baldwin.
When Liz is complaining to Jack about her bunions, the episode's score subtly quotes the "Swan's Theme"/"Song of the Swans" music from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake. This is a reference both to this episode's philharmonic-themed plot and to the 2010 movie Black Swan, in which several shots show the bunion- and other-injury-ridden feet of dancers performing in Swan Lake. The theme is picked up again several times.
Liz Lemmon says the actor playing "Jack Donaghy" in the Tracy Jordan Aunt Phatso movie started in Knots Landing. Alec Baldwin got his start on Knots Landing.
The orchestra does not actually play the theme from Sanford and Son (1972) but a variation of it in the style of Beethoven, set in a minor key.