What Are You Listening To Right..NOW?! Febus MK 8

You can't really go wrong with any version, for it is a superb musical 

There are five English versions of the musical:

The Original London Cast (30 tracks)

The Original Broadway Cast (34 tracks)

The Complete Symphonic Recording (International Cast) (44 tracks)

Tenth Anniversary Concert (41 tracks)

25th Anniversary Concert (40 tracks)

I grew up on a tape my Mom had of the first disc of the London cast, but it was the Broadway version that my love of the musical was based on. In my opinion, the Broadway is better than the London cast (despite the London cast having the original version of Little People, which was scrapped afterwards, and a better version of Stars). Both Valjean and Eponine (who are played by the same actors) are much more confident in the Broadway versions, and I think so far the Broadway Valjean is my favorite (which is important, as the musical sort of revolves around him). The battle scenes are added in the second act of the Broadway.

HOWEVER, both those versions feature incomplete versions of the score, so if you're looking for the whole deal, then either the Complete Symphonic Recording, or Tenth Anniversary Concert recording (which has almost the whole score)  would be better. 

Personally I find the Fantine in the Complete Symphonic version to be very bad (she lacks the passion of the Broadway one, and uses her vibrato to poor effect), but the Eponine (despite having a bit of an accent) is excellent, much better than Eponine in the 10th anniversary concert (imo) and without the shrillness of the London/Broadway one (who doesn't bother me because I grew up on it, but she bothers my wife). The Thenardiers in the Complete Symphonic are also superb. Admittedly it has been a while since I listened to the 10th anniversary concert so I can't remember anything notable about it right now...

I haven't had a chance to listen to the 25th annivesary recording yet so I can't comment on if it improved anything, but based on what I've read of it it sounds like they did make an effort to breathe new life into the musical so I'm looking forward to hearing it.

So ummm ... I guess what I'm saying is you can't really go wrong with any but probably start with either Broadway or The Complete Symphonic.

 

 

Big Big Train - The Underfall Yard