CCMusic.com

Take time in the summer to think about the winter,

country folk would say. That is just as true of CD albums

compiled to celebrate the happiest days of the year. In this

record-breaking sultry summer, Ludwig Guttler has been

giving some thought to how to celebrate the 200th anniversary in 2018 of this global song appropriately. "It is one of the first carols I learned to play on the accordion, a

present I was given for Christmas after my fifth birthday,"

recalls Ludwig Guttler, who remembers that when he was

a child, everybody sang along. In fact it took him a long

time to understand how anybody sitting in church could

stay still to the sound of "Stille Nacht". In addition to the best recordings from his gigantic

catalogue, there are also recordings that have not yet been

publihed: Guttler has arranged "Silent Night, Holy Night!"

for his brass ensemble, clad each of the six verses in an

instrumental garb of it's own and recorded it in the

summer in Zwettl in Austria.