Rene Pape's first solo recording doesn't go the usual big bass-hits route.(On the Beat)(recording of Mein Herz Brenn song cycle adapted from lyrics by heavy-metal rock band Rammstein)(Brief Article)

RENE PAPE's first solo recording doesn't go the usual big bass-hits route. Partly out of a desire to reach a new audience, Pape has recorded Mein Herz Brenn, a song cycle by TORSTEN RASCH adapted from lyrics by the German metal-band RAMMSTEIN. The work's first performances were given by the Dresden Symphony last fall, and now Deutsche Grammophon has released it on disc. The project was the brainchild of producer SVEN HELBIG (a cofounder of the Dresden Symphony), who commissioned Rasch to compose the music.

"What was appealing," says Rasch, "were the lyrics, which are somehow a strange mismatch with the Rammstein music.... Their lyrics are, strangely for a metal-band, clearly in the German Romantic tradition." Rasch altered Rammstein's music dramatically, although he retained certain vocal ...