Mini-episode: Are conductors really that important?

Spend any time with musicians who play in an orchestra it won’t be long before they are sharing war stories of their experiences with dreadful conductors. The subtext of some of these conversations is a half-serious belief that the conductor is just a face for the poster, a body for fundraising events and a target for critics having a bad night… someone the orchestra could survive perfectly well without and, if anything, the performance would be better and everyone on the stage… and in the audience… would have a much more enjoyable time.