Les Misérables: Highlights from the Motion Picture Soundtrack  Les Misérables: Highlights from the Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film soundtrack for the Universal Pictures film "Les Misérables", performed by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen and other artists. It was released on December 21, 2012. The music is written by Claude-Michel Schönberg; the lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer based on the French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Front Row, Tom Hooper the film's director, revealed that Claude-Michel Schönberg would be composing one new song and additional music. In February 2012, Cameron Mackintosh revealed a newly created song, "Suddenly", that "explains what happens when Valjean takes Cosette from the inn and looks after her." The film's vocals were recorded live on set using live piano accompaniments played through earpieces as a guide, with the orchestral accompaniment recorded in post-production, rather than actors lip-syncing to a pre-recorded musical soundtrack. Tom Hooper explained that this would eliminate the need to recapture "locked" performances and allow more creative freedom. Despite the film's creative team claiming this live recording method "a world's-first", several film musicals have utilized this method before, including the "At Long Last Love" (1975), "The Fantasticks" (1995) and "Across the Universe" (2007). On 9 September 2012, Universal Studios executives were granted a viewing of the rough cut of the film without the orchestra. The cut was greeted with "extreme excitement", and Russell Crowe tweeted that he received many excited emails. Orchestral recording sessions for "Les Misérables" began in London on 10 October, 2012 with a 70-piece orchestra. The "Highlights" album doesn't contain all musical numbers in the film, with traditional show highlights such as "Who am I?" and "A Little Fall of Rain" being omitted. The famous anthem "Do You Hear the People Sing?" does not appear on the album except for its reprise in the "Epilogue". Songs included on the album are often also incomplete in comparison with the movie itself (for example, "At the End of the Day" on the album is missing Fantine's explanation.)