'The Wound Dresser' by John Adams

Synopsis

It’s quite possible that you or someone you know is the caregiver for an ill or aging relative or friend. If so, you know the emotional rewards — and heavy emotional toll — that caretaking involves.

On today’s date in 1989, American composer John Adams led the Saint Paul Chamber orchestra and baritone Sanford Sylvan in the premiere performance of a powerful new chamber work he had composed inspired by — and in honor of — caretakers everywhere.

In 1988, his father had died after years of struggling with Alzheimer’s, and Adams was haunted by images of his mother caring for her husband as the illness progressed. Living in San Francisco, he was also moved by Bay Area friends who nursed loved ones during those helpless early years of the AIDS epidemic.

He found that these 20th century experiences resonated in certain poems by 19th century American poet Walt Whitman, who had served as a volunteer nurse during the Civil War, initially to care for his own wounded brother, but subsequently to tend other wounded soldiers in those traumatic years.

Adams chose one Whitman poem, “The Wound Dresser,” as text and title for his new work. “The Wound Dresser is about the power of human compassion that is acted out on a daily basis,” he said. This work has become one of the most-performed and most-admired of all the compositions of John Adams.

Music Played in Today's Program

John Adams (b. 1947): The Wound Dresser; Sanford Sylvan; baritone; Orchestra of St. Luke’s; John Adams, conductor; Nonesuch 79218

On This Day

Births

• 1766 - English composer and organist Samuel Wesley, in Bristol England. He was the nephew of John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of the Methodist Church.

• 1842 - Italian opera composer and librettist Arrigo Boito, in Paudua

• 1846 - Italian song composer Luigi Denza, in Castellammare. His most famous song is “Funiculi, Finicula.”

Deaths

• 1704 - French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 78, in Paris

• 1929 - French composer André Messager, 75, in Paris

Premieres

• 1607 - Monteverdi: opera Orfeo, at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua

• 1711 - Handel: opera, Rinaldo, in London at the Queen’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Mar. 7). This was the first Handel opera produced in London, and the first Italian opera written specifically composed for the London stage.

• 1725 - Handel: opera Rodelinda, in London (Julian date: Feb. 13)

• 1730 - Handel: opera Partenope, in London at the King’s Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Mar. 7)

• 1745 - Rameau: comedy-ballet La Princesse de Navarre (to a text by Voltaire, for the wedding of the Dauphin with Maria Teresa of Spain), at Versailles

• 1876 - Grieg: incidental music for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt, as part of a staged production in Christiania (Oslo), Norway

• 1935 - Miaskovsky: Symphony No. 14, in Moscow

• 1939 - Roy Harris: Symphony No. 3, by the Boston Symphony, Koussevitzky conducting

• 1955 - Carlisle Floyd: opera Susannah at Florida State University in Tallahassee; According to Opera America, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade

• 1956 - Piston: Symphony No. 5, in New York City

• 1976 - Bernstein: musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Philadelphia as a trial run at the Forrest Theater, conducted by Roland Gagnon. The show opened in New York City at the Mark Hellinger Theater in New York City on May 4, 1976, also conducted by Gagnon.

• 1979 - Berg: opera Lulu (first staging of complete version as arr. by Friedrich Cerha), at the Paris Opéra, with Pierre Boulez conducting

• 1985 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: Requiem, in New York City at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The London premiere occurred on April 21, 1984, in Westminster Abbey; The soloists in both cases were soprano Sarah Brightman and tenor Placido Domingo, with Lorin Maazel conducting.

• 2000 - Joan Tower: The Last Dance, at Carnegie Hall, by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s

Others

• 1727 - Handel applies for British citizenship (Julian date: Feb. 13)

• 1894 - First documented American performance of Handel’s Concerto Grosso No. 10, by the Boston Symphony, Emil Paur conducting