Lead Like the Great Conductors - a Response to Itay Talgam

     This evening I watched the TED Talk by Israeli conductor, Itay Talgam, entitled "Lead Like the Great Conductors".  One of the first things that I noticed was he referred to the conductor of an orchestra as comparable to a "manager" in an office setting.  Though I have been around conductors most of my life, I had never heard of thought of them quite in that way, but it makes perfect sense.  A manager is like the oversee-er who knows how to do all of the jobs under him/her, but is taking on higher responsibilities while still taking care of those they supervise.  At least, a good manager should do so.  The conductor is the one who makes it possible for all the voices to be heard in an orchestra, and as Itay phrased it "the joy [of conducting] is enabling other people's stories to be heard at the same time".  This resonated with me because I really enjoy making people happy, and I never really thought about the performer's stories or the audience's stories being told so much as the composer's story being told.  But without the conductor, no story would get told to the best of its abilities. 
     However, I did get concerned when he criticized another conductor for not showing the same amount of joy in the conducting.  Personally, I felt the first piece he showed was of such a quality that it allowed the conductor to show joy, but the second one was a more serious entry to the piece.  Was it that serious quality to the piece that provoked his facial expression and his "excessive control"?  Can we really compare the conducting styles and amount of joy shown when we're looking at different styles of pieces?
     I also don't necessarily agree with this thought that a conductor doesn't need to be overly clear with their motions because it would restrict listening within the ensemble.  The conductor is the person from which the section leaders are meant to get their cues about style and phrasing and overall shape.  If the conductor is never clear about that, every section leader could potentially think differently, and the ensemble would never be together.  I think there needs to be a certain amount of contact and control exerted by the conductor in every orchestra.  Yes the players are all professionals who deserve respect in their musical ideas, but without a conductor exhibiting control, it's really just like a large version of chamber music.  
     Something I will take away from this would be that a conductor who only asserts authority will not get as successful a result as they would like. They have to be able to be assertive when they need to, and enjoy themselves when they can.  This is not to say they have to visually show their enjoyment (again, that is more determined by the style of the piece), but they need to find the balance of control, assertion, and inner joy. You also need to have process and content to get where you want.
     In conclusion, I agreed with the majority of what Talgam had to say, that great conductors are as much listeners and enjoy-ers of the music as they are leaders.  But I will argue with him that particularly at the levels that we will be experiencing first, the conductor's level of control and assertion needs to be higher than conducting with our face.  Though that would be really cool to do, I would say that is more a mark of an incredible ensemble than an incredible conductor.