The music is already written down the orchestra play what’s written, so what difference does the conductor make apart from the tempo?
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Think of a rock band. It’s more than just the performers on stage. You also have the guy doing the mixing, controlling the volume of each instrument. One of the functions of a conductor is to be the mixer for sections of the orchestra, bringing the volume up or down for different instrumental sections, or even individual musicians.
Another thing the conductor does is control the tempo and tempo changes. The conductor is needed to manage this because it’s harder for a 100-piece orchestra to coordinate themselves through tempo changes than it is for a 4-piece rock band who are all looking at each other for cues using the drummer as their tempo controller.
A conductor interprets the music and gives it nuances and emotion by performing mixing and controlling tempo. If everyone in the orchestra played their own interpretations, it would be chaotic and the music would sound really bad with everyone out of sync. In this way the conductor is like the director of a play or movie who tells the actors how the script should be conveyed to the audience.
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