Original Vienna Cast. I bought this recording primarily because I loved Elisabeth so much, and wanted to see what the creative team had come up with for the life of Mozart. And although I didn't fall immediately in love with this CD, as I did with Elisabeth, I am now pretty much hooked. There are some really fantastic songs, and the cast is wonderful. "Wie kann es m�glich sein?" has become one of my favourite songs from any show. The orchestrations are great, and there's enough of the show here that you can get a pretty good idea of what's going on. I'd recommend this not only to fans of Elisabeth, but to all theatre fans.

Original Budapest Cast. This is a 14-track highlights recording, and is quite different from the Vienna recording. The songs have been re-arranged, and there is some different music included as well. The orchestrations are lighter in some places, perhaps a bit more in keeping with the period (like the harpischord in the opening), but I found them in general a bit weaker (especially on 'A gyozedelmes zenesz�'). The cast is very good - everyone's going to have their opinions on who's better, but I've got no complaints here. Fans of the show will definitely want to pick this up, but for an introduction to the show, I'd still recommend the Vienna cast recording first.

Buy the recordings at Sound of Music.