ROBIN E RJ FALAM SOBRE O CD E A DOENÇA
Autor: Claudio BR GIBB | Publicado: 2012-03-12T09:47:00-07:00

Algumas curiosidades sobre o novo álbum do Robin. E algumas curiosidades sobre como conviveu com a doença nesse período. A matéria diz que não há mais traços de câncer no fígado de Robin. Tomara que as boas notícias que têm sido divulgadas correspondam à realidade.

WHEN ROBIN GIBB decided to embark on his most ambitious musical project to date, there were only two things he could be sure of. 
The requiem would commemorate the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago and, as the first joint venture between the former Bee Gee and his son RJ, it would bring the two kindred spirits closer together. 
However, as father and son discussed their plan over lunch at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London, on a sunny day in May 2009, the project was about to take on an entirely different dimension. Just a few weeks later Robin would be diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to his liver.
From marking a tragedy that killed 1,517 people, the musical odyssey would become shrouded by a much more personal tragedy; one that threatened the life of one of the world’s most gifted musicians and risked tearing the heart and soul out of a family.
While his chemotherapy helped Robin, 62, fight the physical battle, his music gave him the mental strength to overcome his biggest challenge. “There is no doubt that Titanic kept me going. I’m not sure I’d be here without it,” said Robin from his mansion in Thame, Oxfordshire.
The Titanic Requiem, the songwriter’s first classical composition, is a magnum opus of unparalleled beauty.
Divided into 15 sections, it takes the listener on a musical journey from the building of the world’s first “unsinkable” ship in Harland and Wolff’s Belfast shipyards and its maiden voyage which was to end so abruptly on the night of April 14, 1912, when it struck an iceberg, to the scramble for survival by some and the valiant sacrifice of so many others.
“The Titanic disaster was a seminal moment in history. I can imagine people in 100 years time thinking of the Lockerbie disaster in the same sort of way.
“I have always been very interested in history. It was my favourite subject at school and I know RJ shares the same passion.”
Softly spoken and measured, RJ (or Robin- John, to give the 29-year-old quantum physics prodigy his full name) recalled how his father took every opportunity to satisfy his thirst for history while touring with the Bee Gees.
“One of my first memories was when I was six and we went to East Germany where the Bee Gees were touring.
“It was before the Wall came down and it was like moving from colour to a land of black and white. I remember Dad being absolutely fascinated. He took us around Berlin pointing out the bullet holes on the Reichstag from the Second World War.”
With such a love for history, it is little wonder that the star lives in a 13thcentury manor house which, among its many historical claims, is the site of the signing of Joan of Arc’s death warrant. It is not the first time the Bee Gee has tackled a sombre historical calamity. 
The hit New York Mining Disaster 1941, written by Robin and Barry Gibb in 1966, was inspired by the Aberfan disaster in October of that year when a massive landslide of loose rock and mining debris tumbled from Merthyr Vale colliery on to the South Wales village, killing 116 children and 28 adults.
“Everything I have ever done musically, from the Bee Gee days to now, has been about painting images with music,” says Robin. 
“The Titanic requiem is exactly the same.”
RJ described the composition as “organic”. “At the beginning it was based on the Latin Requiem Mass. Then each section evolved, layer by layer. Sometime we would start with a cello or violin or even timpani and eventually you would get images and it would fall into place. I discovered that we think in the same way musically and we rarely disagreed.
“We were inspired by the story. We know that Pitman, who rowed boat Number 5, was told by his passengers not to row back because they feared they would be swamped by the multitude of passengers crying and moaning. Later, he said that the groans and cries went on for more than an hour, before slowly dying out.”
Robin and RJ were aided by arranger and co-producer Savvas Iosifidis, while the Requiem is performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Apart from Robin, it also boasts the vocal talents of tenor Mario Frangoulis and chorister Isabel Suckling. Aled Jones will perform Frangoulis’s role in concerts to the backdrop of Giuseppe Raffa’s Operama holograms.
Every sound effect is recreated by the orchestra, from the Morse code that punctuates the section called SOS to the scraped gong that evokes the scraping of the hull against the iceberg. “We thought it would take us only three months, which turned out to be an overambitious hope,” said Robin. “The project ended up taking us two years.”
As the family, including Robin’s wife Dwina, sit around a roaring fi re in the ancient hall, the feeling is of warmth and relief. According to Robin’s oncologist, his victory over the illness has been nothing short of “spectacular”. There are no longer any traces of cancer in his liver, and his prognosis is good. “I’m over the worst,” added Robin.
However, his journey has been long, perilous and, in parts, dark. RJ recalled how, in 2009, those around him began to suspect something was wrong.
“We started noticing that he was feeling more and more tired and getting a bit skinnier,” RJ said. “Then he was diagnosed. At first my father wouldn’t talk about it but as he went through chemotherapy and realised it wasn’t as bad as he feared he opened up to us. 
“You don’t want to think about it but I knew that Titanic could end up being our final project together. We have always been close but this has brought us really close together.
“I savoured every moment but there was never a sense of urgency or fear because of the disease, to get it done quick; we just threw ourselves into the work. We had fun. It was a labour of love.” 
HE ADDED: “The project helped me deal with his disease too. Now that the truth is out people congratulate him for overcoming it. They are not looking at him like a sick man.”
Robin’s twin brother Maurice, who suffered a fatal heart attack in 2003 after an operation to remove an intestinal blockage, is never far from anyone’s thoughts at the house. 
“My father had the same kind of twist of the bowel that Maurice had but when he was able to come through the surgery, he was all the more triumphant,” said RJ.
“You can imagine the relief that he was able to beat something that took away his dearest friend. He and Barry still find solace in remembering and talking about Maurice together.” 
Robin added: “What I do and what I have done all these years, it’s not a job, it’s a love. I can’t read or write music but the songs and the music come to me. Don’t ask me where they come from because I don’t know. 
“I do know that it hasn’t been about the glamour, or the money, or the one-night stands, or any of that. It’s about the composition. It has always been about that, from when I started writing songs at the age of eight. That is what gets me through and that, along with the love of my family, is what got me through these past two years.”
The Titanic Requiem is released on March 26 and will be performed in full as a concert at Central Hall, Westminster, London, on April 10. Tickets available from robingibb.com