That's how I remember it from high school - by the time the performance comes around you can play the piece without looking at the conductor.
I've heard that many pro orchestra/conductor combos only have one or two rehearsals, maybe the night before and day of the performance. In that case I could imagine it takes a lot of skill on both the conductor and musicians part to pull off the performance.
I found it interesting to hear that conductors didn't play a huge role until after Beethoven. The older I get the more I feel that post-Beethoven symphonic music is a little over the top and often hard to enjoy. Maybe the need for a conductor is a sign that things simply got out of hand. I do enjoy a good Strauss or Verdi opera, though, and that's even crazier in terms of complexity.
Isn't that a natural progression in many fields though? Developing ever more complex and challenging material to show off you're "better" than the previous generation or "building upon their work" so to speak? Regardless of whether the added complexity is much of an improvement.
It kind of makes sense that you start needing a conductor - it is basically dividing the growing complexity into lower and higher level tasks because the full task is too much to bear for a single individual.
Often times, in the standard repertoire, the conductor doesn't necessarily do anything in the performance. It is in the preparation, when the conductor disseminates their interpretation to the ensemble, where their artistic vision is forged.
I've heard that many pro orchestra/conductor combos only have one or two rehearsals, maybe the night before and day of the performance. In that case I could imagine it takes a lot of skill on both the conductor and musicians part to pull off the performance.
I found it interesting to hear that conductors didn't play a huge role until after Beethoven. The older I get the more I feel that post-Beethoven symphonic music is a little over the top and often hard to enjoy. Maybe the need for a conductor is a sign that things simply got out of hand. I do enjoy a good Strauss or Verdi opera, though, and that's even crazier in terms of complexity.