Vera Schneidenbach Eine fröhliche Landpartie (CD)

It is no wonder that Vera Schneidenbach's extensive repertoire includes not only international evergreens, musical melodies and folklore, but also a great many songs and hits written by authors from the former Eastern Bloc. In the GDR, the most successful composers and the best lyricists wrote for them. Dieter Schneider, known in the industry for writing tailor-made lyrics like Singe jeden Tag ein Lied (Sing a Song Every Day) or Wünsche sind wie Wind und Wolken (Wishes are Like Wind and Clouds), Arndt Bause, successful all-rounder in the GDR pop scene, who wrote the melodies for Vera Schneidenbach for Young Love or Departure 00:10, or Gerd Michaelis, head and founder of the choir of the same name, they all contributed to the blonde singer's success from Warnemünde.

Astrid Beutner also composed for Vera Schneidenbach. Songs like It's so beautiful that there is love, You've already promised me so much, Love on credit, Longing that has no name or Dear Wind came to her. The two blondes Vera and Astrid are united by a deep friendship. Not only musically. What is special about Astrid Beutner is that she is actually a pharmacist from Berlin. She first attracted attention at the 1964 Schlager songwriting competition organized by the Neue Berliner Illustrierte magazine. Under the motto “My best medicine is music”, she subsequently put many ideas into notes. She prescribed the song Aber Tag für Tag (But day after day) to Vera Schneidenbach in 1969, who was able to use it to sing a hit with her blonde friends.

Vera can sing whatever she wants, and her fans believe it. Whether she lets troika bells ring when the wild tulips bloom, whether she asks tie a bouquet for summer or states “then the journey begins” and asserts “I found your laughter in the wind,” or whether she asks “get the cherries from the tree,” her singing always remains honest. It couldn't be more honest? But there is, namely when she sings I'm standing at the seaside again in Warnemünde, Vera's song from the 1970 Baltic Sea Festival. A declaration of love for the city where she was born.

HORST-DIETER CZEMBOR

Schwerte, December 1997