Determining a conductor’s influence is tricky. Does a “good” conductor wangle bravura performances from his players, or simply preside over a self-organising virtuoso ensemble? To find out, Dr D’Ausilio watched two (anonymous) conductors leading five excerpts from Mozart’s symphony number 40 played by eight violinists from the Città di Ferrara orchestra.
Crucially, the judges rated the dictatorial performance more highly of the two. In the other excerpt, the despotic conductor was just as assertive, but the violinists seemed to pay as much attention to themselves as they did to him. 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.
As pointed out by one of the commenters on the original post, the sample size is too small. But interesting nonetheless.