Different Trains - WajnbergPanufnik

The Mieczysław Weinberg Institute proudly presents its second CD release, Different Trains, a unique recording devoted to the music of three composers closely connected with the history of twentieth-century Polish music: Mieczysław Weinberg, Andrzej Panufnik, and Roxanna Panufnik. The album was released in December 2024 as a joint production of the Institute and the Anagram label.

The project was inspired by the biographies of two Warsaw-born composers, Weinberg and Panufnik, whose lives, although similarly marked by the tragedies of the twentieth century, ultimately took very different paths. Born and educated in Warsaw, both were forced to leave their native city by war, politics, and violence, only to find themselves in two vastly different worlds—Moscow and London. The title, Different Trains, refers to the metaphorical trains of their lives: the divergent journeys and trains of thought that profoundly shaped their artistic voices.

The album features:

Song to the Virgin Mary by Andrzej Panufnik, presented in a version for string sextet inspired by Polish folk singing and the tradition of Gregorian chant;
Trains of Thought by Roxanna Panufnik, composed in 1987, a work that combines a logical flow of reflection with a vivid musical evocation of the rhythmic motion of a train;
Prayer, a father-and-daughter collaboration in which Roxanna Panufnik expands upon Andrzej Panufnik’s short composition dedicated to Our Lady of Skępe;
the world premiere recording of Mieczysław Weinberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 3, Op. 152, in an arrangement for string sextet by Maria Sławek, revealing the intimate chamber dimension of one of the composer’s late masterpieces.

The performances bring together six distinguished Polish musicians—Maria Sławek, Anna Maria Staśkiewicz, Katarzyna Budnik, Artur Rozmysłowicz, Rafał Kwiatkowski, and Marcin Zdunik—whose exceptional artistic rapport and refined ensemble playing give the recording its distinctive sound.

The album appears at a time when Weinberg’s music is enjoying a remarkable international renaissance, while Panufnik’s oeuvre is steadily reclaiming its rightful place in the global concert repertoire. Bringing together their musical worlds after decades of separation, Different Trains is dedicated to Victoria Weinberg, the composer’s daughter.