I've always rather admired those long-haired, overweight, Germanic-looking conductors, who strut around in front of their orchestras, waving an oversized baton and wiping the sweat from their brows. Their excessive energy only adds to whatever is being played by the more hard-working musicians.
But I've always had one question at the back of my mind. Would the music be any different if he wasn't there, waving his stick?
It would be an interesting experiment to record two versions of a piece of music; one with a conductor, and another without. Then play them back to an audience to see if they could tell which was which.
The 'First Violin', sometimes known as the 'Concert master', could easily replace the role of the conductor, and as long as all the other musicians followed their scores to the semi-quaver, then all should go well. I have seen some conductors who seemed totally unaware of the music being played, and simply waved their arms about as some form of 'dramatic theatre'.
I don't wish to advocate conductor-less orchestras, as I think they add drama, but as far as the actual music is concerned I do have my doubts.
