John Nelson
The American conductor John Wilton Nelson was born the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor, to American missionaries living in Costa Rica. He grew up with considerable exposure to religious vocal music. He is still most strongly identified with his interest in, and performance of, major choral-orchestral sacred music masterworks of the Western musical tradition.
He studied in Orlando, FL, and at Wheaton College in Illinois, then took conducting from Jean Morel at the Juilliard School in New York. While there, he won the Irving Berlin Award for conducting. He worked primarily in New York, in a variety of freelance jobs (including conducting on some of Peter Schickele's "P.D.Q. Bach" performances on the Vanguard Records label).
One of his notable accomplishments was organizing and conducting the New York concert premiere of the immense opera Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, one of the composers he most deeply admires. He had already made his opera-conducting debut at the New York City Opera, in 1972, with Carmen. The success of his Troyens performance led to an immediate engagement to conduct it at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in 1973. He also conducted the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave at Santa Fe.
In 1976, he was appointed music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure there, the orchestra became a full-time (52 weeks a year) organization. Nelson returned the orchestra to recording (on the New World label) and led its move to the intimate Circle Theater (now Hilbert Circle Theater) in the city's center. He is credited with improving the orchestra's ensemble and sound.
In 1979, he also became associated with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and in 1983 was appointed music director of the Caramoor Festival. After a dangerous illness in the mid-'80s, he gave up all these positions (in 1987, 1991, and 1990, respectively) and transferred his major activities to Europe, where he gained a reputation as a major operatic conductor, especially following a highly praised recording of Benvenuto Cellini in Lyons, in 1989.
He has conducted many of the leading symphony orchestras of the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Saint Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Boston, and San Francisco Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre de Paris, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the orchestras of Stockholm, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, and Cologne. As an opera conductor, he has appeared at the Chicago Lyric Opera and the opera houses of Rome, Geneva, and Paris. His operatic repertory is wide, ranging from Handel to contemporary opera. In the concert hall, he conducts the great choral masterworks of Bach, as well as new works, including Takemitsu's I Hear the Water Dreaming, and Paul Schoenfeld's Deborah, which he premiered.
John Nelson has recorded frequently, including acclaimed recordings of Berlioz's Beatrice et Benedict, and Handel's Semele (a Grammy award winner). He has formed an organization to raise money and commission new major sacred choral-orchestral works, redressing, he says, the secular emphasis of twentieth-century music. Schoenfeld, Henryck Gorecki, Christopher Rouse, Oswaldo Golijov, and Augusta Reed Thomas are among the composers the organization, Soli Deo Gloria Inc., has commissioned.
In 1998, he accepted the position of music director of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, a 14-week a year commitment that will enable him to pursue his operatic and other conducting projects.
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Handel: Messiah, HWV 56
John Nelson, The English Concert
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 24 Nov 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette, H. 79 - Cléopâtre, H. 36
John Nelson, Joyce DiDonato, Cyrille Dubois, Christopher Maltman, Orchestre Philharmonique De Strasbourg
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 31 Mar 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Les Nuits d'été, Op. 7 - Harold en Italie, Op. 16
Michael Spyres, Timothy Ridout, Orchestre Philharmonique De Strasbourg, John Nelson
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24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Requiem (Grande Messe des morts) [Live]
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 20 Sep 2019
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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J.S. Bach: Arias for Soprano and Violin (Kathleen Battle Edition, Vol. 1)
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24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Apr 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz : La Damnation de Faust
Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 22 Nov 2019
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
French Cello
Marc Coppey, Orchestre Philharmonique De Strasbourg, John Nelson
Classical - Released by audite Musikproduktion on 8 Apr 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Semele
English Chamber Orchestra, John Nelson
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonies n°1-9
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Berlioz: Te Deum
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on 29 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonies n° 31, 39 & 41
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16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hector Berlioz : Te Deum
Classical - Released by Parlophone UK on 29 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Florentz Concert - Hommage A Notre-Dame
Olivier Latry, Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris, Nicole Corti, Ensemble Orchestral De Paris, John Nelson
Classical - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Arias for Soprano and Violin
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Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 & Ruys Blas Overture, Op, 95
Classical - Released by Parlophone UK on 15 Jun 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Concertos pour Piano Nos. 1 & 2
Boris Berezovsky, Ensemble Orchestral De Paris, John Nelson
Classical - Released by Mirare on 1 Jan 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hector Berlioz : Béatrice et Bénédict
Opera - Released by Warner Classics International on 1 Apr 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Messiah, HWV 56: Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: "Hallelujah"
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Opera - Released by Warner Classics on 3 Nov 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bohuslav Martinů, Sergei Prokofiev, Ernő Dohnányi: Cello Concertos [In Memoriam János Starker]
Janos Starker, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, John Nelson, The Philharmonia, Walter Susskind
Concertos - Released by Praga Digitals on 1 Nov 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo