But as an independent body, its members were often blithely indifferent to what conductors thought.
"One of the big misconceptions of what conductors do is they stand there and beat time," Mr. Bicket said.
Is Nigel Kennedy serious in professing a gleeful ignorance of what conductors do ('All you can be is yourself', 31 August)?
Simply by doing what conductors do all the time, albeit more brilliantly than any other musician I've ever heard tackling Bruckner: he controlled the flow of time.
This led to a performance that the panel liked less than the one under the meeker conductor, who exercised little influence over his players.The findings are in harmony with what conductors knew all along: that baton-toting despots, like the late Herbert von Karajan, do add value but only if they rein in the uppity musicians in front of them.
For anyone who has ever wondered what conductors actually do up there on the podium, and what possible difference their elusive semaphore makes to a huge group of musicians, here is incontrovertible proof: the orchestra has discovered, through Abbado, a new level of intensity and expression.
Marclay's piece is proof, it seems, of Elias Canetti's formulation, in his Crowds and Power, of what the conductor essentially represents: "There is no more obvious expression of power than the performance of a conductor … He is the living embodiment of law, both positive and negative".
Putting ego aside, the young conductor Andris Nelsons lets an orchestra know early on that their joint task is to achieve not what the conductor wants, but what is best for the composer.
The musicians do what the conductor wants.
What other conductor has served his host country so handsomely?
