Titanic Requiem is a musical work by Robin Gibb and Robin-John Gibb, first performed in April 2012, a month before the death of Robin Gibb senior. The work was conceived as a commemoration of the sinking of the Titanic on 15 April 1912.
The première was given by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and RSVP Voices under Cliff Masterson, at Central Hall, Westminster, on 10 April 2012, in a concert programme that also included a selection of music played on the maiden and only voyage of RMS Titanic. The soloists included Aled Jones and Isabel Suckling. Robin Gibb, who should have performed the solo "Don't Cry Alone", was too ill to attend the concert, and a recording of the track was played instead, while the new composition was introduced in person by Robin-John. [1]
One reviewer said of the New York Suite, "this musical voyage never left home waters". [2] The same reviewer stated that: "Things picked up with the Requiem itself, which was performed with terrific focus under the baton of the music's orchestrator, Cliff Masterson. Robin Gibb's claim that the music could have been written 300 years ago turned out to be the literal truth, in parts. In the “Maiden Voyage” section there was a scrupulous correctness about the part-writing that would have merited a tick from a 19th-century Leipzig professor. Coupled with a distinctly English tone (born of distant memories of folk music mingled with a kind of Jacobean courtliness), it made for something sweetly earnest", and that: “the best things were the stern, minatory numbers, such as the “Confutatis”, which had a sudden turn to major-key radiance that Mendelssohn might have penned.” [2]
The première was criticised for organisational problems which led to some concert-goers being admitted late. Guest conductor Alan Chircop, who was in charge of the orchestra during the first half, was criticised, and the orchestra itself was said to be over-amplified. Jones's singing was called "unsure". The use of the classical requiem format was said to be misguided by Musical Source; [3] however, the Telegraph reviewer differed, stating that the idea for the piece, written to mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking, was an ingenious one: compose a suite of mixed vocal and orchestral pieces that would trace the doomed ship’s maiden voyage, interweaving this with settings of the Latin Mass for the Dead. [4]
The album (released on 26 March 2012) was generally well-received by critics, with the Independent stating: "RJ Gibb is the motivating force behind The Titanic Requiem, including the decision to base it on the Latin Mass – though his father comes into his own singing "Don't Cry Alone", as from a drowning husband to his wife. The "New York Suite in C Major" is a pleasing evocation of hope, ambition and freedom, and "Sub Astris (Under the Stars)" ingeniously reflects the class divisions on board by contrasting elegant strings and aristocratic horns with the more déclassé xylophone tapping the folksier steps of rougher-hewn footwear..", [5] and Time magazine saying: "As is appropriate for an album commemorating a tragedy, the music is hauntingly beautiful" [6] Mario Frangoulis takes the place of Aled Jones as a soloist in the recording. Gibb himself said that the piece was "rooted in the kind of timeless music that ... shows how relevant music is to the human spirit." [7]
Robin Hugh Gibb was a British singer and songwriter. He gained worldwide fame as a member of the Bee Gees with elder brother Barry and twin brother Maurice. Robin Gibb also had his own successful solo career. Their youngest brother Andy was also a singer.
Hayley Dee Westenra is a New Zealand classical crossover singer. Her first internationally released album, Pure, reached number one on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million copies worldwide, making it one of the fastest selling albums in her country's history.
Aled Jones, is a Welsh singer, radio and television presenter, and actor. As a teenage chorister, he gained widespread fame in 1985 with his recording of "Walking in the Air", which reached No 5 in the UK pop chart. He has since worked in television with the BBC and ITV, and on radio for the BBC and Classic FM.
Sir John Milford Rutter is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music.
Mario Frangoulis is a Greek vocalist, famous for his refined tenor vocals. Born in Rhodesia, Frangoulis after his three-decade long career has established himself as a critically and commercially acclaimed recording artist and vocal performer in Greece and neighbouring countries. His initial rise to international prominence came with his hit song "Vincerò, Perderò" and his rendition of the song "Nights in White Satin".
Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, between 1887 and 1890. The choral-orchestral setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead in Latin is the best-known of his large works. Its focus is on eternal rest and consolation. Fauré's reasons for composing the work are unclear, but do not appear to have had anything to do with the death of his parents in the mid-1880s. He composed the work in the late 1880s and revised it in the 1890s, finishing it in 1900.
John Herbert Foulds was an English cellist and composer of classical music. He was largely self-taught as a composer, and belongs among the figures of the English Musical Renaissance.
Howard David Blake is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works. Blake's most successful work is his soundtrack for Channel 4’s 1982 film The Snowman, which includes the song "Walking in the Air". He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces.
Knut Nystedt was a Norwegian orchestral and choral composer.
Friday Night Is Music Night is a long-running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast from 1953 to 2023 on the BBC Light Programme and its successor BBC Radio 2, moving to BBC Radio 3 from April 2024.
The Requiem, Op. 9, is a 1947 setting of the Latin Requiem by Maurice Duruflé for a solo baritone, mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, and organ, or orchestra with organ. The thematic material is mostly taken from the Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant. The Requiem was first published in 1948 by Durand in an organ version.
Cliff Masterson is an orchestrator, conductor, songwriter, arranger and music producer.
Isabel Suckling is a British singer who, upon signing a record deal with Decca Records, became the youngest classical recording artist signed by Decca, and the first choirgirl to sign a record contract with a major music label. Suckling sang in the choir at York Minster at the time, and was discovered by Decca following a nationwide search. She was mentored by the singer, TV/radio presenter and former boy soprano Aled Jones.
The musicians of the Titanic were an octet orchestra who performed chamber music in the first class section aboard the ship.
This is a discography of works by British singer-songwriter Robin Gibb as a solo artist. For information about recordings made by the Bee Gees see Bee Gees discography. Gibb's entire song catalogue is published by Universal Music Publishing Group.
The ocean liner Titanic has been extensively portrayed in films, books, memorials and museums.
This is a summary of 2010 in music in the United Kingdom.
John Simon is a South African-born British classical music composer.
50 St. Catherine's Drive is the seventh and final album by singer-songwriter Robin Gibb, released on 29 September 2014 in the United Kingdom and 30 September 2014 in the United States on Rhino Records two years after his death in 2012. The album was named after the address on the Isle of Man where Gibb and his family lived. The album was also co-produced and remastered by his son Robin-John Gibb who had previously composed the album Titanic Requiem with his father. The album reached No. 70 in the United Kingdom and No. 39 in Germany.