John Nelson: A Conductor Rejuvenated

John Nelson wants to make one thing clear: He didn’t abandon a successful musical directorship--as conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony--to work on his career.

“It wasn’t a matter of that. My ‘career’ was going fine,” the 49-year-old American musician says.

“I was busy, I guess popular, and probably could have gone on where I was indefinitely. But I was beginning to feel empty inside.”

So, after 11 happy years as steward of the thriving Indianapolis orchestra, Nelson chose in 1987 to walk away from the comfort and security of a full-time post. Since then, he has been a happy free-lancer, choosing his own programs, pursuing his own, personal musical goals and constantly traveling.

“I said goodby to the orchestra at the last stop of our first European tour, in Nuremberg. My wife and I got into the car and drove off into the sunset--to Paris.”

Personal growth, not freedom from boards of directors or from the social side of being a music director, was Nelson’s goal, he says. He is sitting in the roof garden of an exclusive Westside hotel on the afternoon before beginning rehearsals for his return to Hollywood Bowl and the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, tonight and Thursday.

At a summertime family rap session, several years ago, “my best friend--our families vacation together, once a year--planted the idea: make a long-term plan.”

Nelson did so, then “got together with all my managers, and told them what I hoped to do.”

What he outlined at that time was “where I want to be, at each stage of my life, up to the age of 80--in fact, working back from 80.”

The wheres of that list of goals are not, the bearded, energetic conductor points out, specific places or career attainments.

“These are inner goals--not specific career points--I have mapped out. How I want to feel, how I want to be, to fit in the world according to my own sense of fitting in.”

But, “making music, with all the pleasure and creativity and spontaneity that ought to imply, is the main thing.

“For the first seven months after leaving the orchestra, I was rejuvenated, not by staying away from music, but by listening to it with fresh ears. What an opportunity I had given myself--to listen to music without any plan or project or use in mind, but just for the fun of it. I think I’ve been able to keep that feeling.”

According to Nelson, the rejuvenation has worked so well, he may now even start to consider the possibility of some day taking another permanent post.

He goes regularly, he says, to the principal orchestras of Leipzig, Dresden, Monte Carlo and Israel, as well as one of his favorites, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. With these orchestras, Nelson conducts works he loves and specializes in, without having to worry about repeating himself--as music directors must. Eclectic in repertory, Nelson does have one specialty, and it is the music of Berlioz. Indeed, what has been called his signature piece, the “Symphonie Fantastique,” turns up this week as the final work on his Thursday program with the L.A. Philharmonic.

Even for one happy in his work, there is the future to worry about, Nelson reminds us.

“At the same time we are turning out too many orchestral players and conductors and soloists, we are not at the same time building audiences as conscientiously as we should. There are more and more professional players, but not so many jobs waiting for them.”

And, in what were formerly the two Germanies, Nelson says, having recently returned from that area, a whole new set of problems for musicians has come with the tearing down of old borders.

“Before, there were not so many choices, and people attended concerts and opera nightly, and at low ticket-prices. Now, with new freedoms, there are many more distractions--more films, some of them X-rated, for instance--and choices to make. Also, despite government subsidy, prices for tickets have gone up. Musical events are not automatically sold out anymore.”