The notion of the conductor as autocrat, bent on achieving perfection by any means necessary, can seem like a throwback to another era. It was Arturo Toscanini who famously broke batons, berated musicians and even threw a score at his orchestra during rehearsals, all we were told, in the service of the music. By the 1960s, collective bargaining agreements and workplace rules helped to do away with such behavior. Or did they?
