Stille Nacht Stille NachtFranz Xaver Gruber's 1855 arrangement of his composition, "Stille Nacht! Heilige Nacht!" has been adapted for worldwide presentation on the Internet by the Netherlands Radio Boys Choir.
Under the direction of Mark Peterson, the choir recorded the original Gruber melody which can reach a large international audience for the first time in history. Modern arrangements of the carol have left out several notes that were part of the original melody when Gruber composed it for Joseph Mohr's poem in 1818. The Silent Night Society in Austria has been trying to promote the Gruber version for many years, however it has been a daunting project in view of the popularity of recordings by Bing Crosby, Jose Carreras, and Elvis Presley who all sing the "missing notes" version.
Formed in February 1998, The Netherlands Radio Boys Choir is officially part of the Netherlands Radio Choir (Groot Omroepkoor), which itself operates under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Music Centre (Muziekcentrum van de Omroep). This organization is home to the several radio orchestras as well as to the Netherlands Radio Choir.
The conductor, Mark Peterson, has a background in English cathedral music, having been a boy chorister at Guildford Cathedral and a bass at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. According to Peterson the choir is operating on an extremely small "shoestring" budget. There is, for example, no money available for such luxuries as choir uniforms.
Fortunately, the absence of uniforms will not deter people from hearing the Netherlands Radio Boys Choir sing of heavenly peace in honor of the 180th anniversary of the world's best-loved carol.
The website address for this special recording is:
http://www.peterson-int.demon.nl/nrbc/realaud0.html