Conductor in Orchestra? Commander in Orchestra?

Valery Gergiev (1953-, Russian) is one of the top conductors now who has been the principal conductor of Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. He is now the chief conductor of Munich Philharmonic and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.

In my opinion, he is a precedent in conducting late 19th century to 20th century Russian symphonic works. Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich...You name it. I found his conducting style so Russian...so powerful...like a winter soldier leading the orchestra to fight. In other words, his conducting style is full of nationalistic character, that may be why we feel so right when he conducts Russian orchestral works. Some people may say he is too bossy, too mean when he rehearse with the orchestra. His famous quote, "You cannot start without me." may sound a bit harsh to others. However, I don't feel like he's commanding musicians like soldiers. I think his bossy way is making all the players to believe him and work towards the same goal. I can imagine he would say, "You just need to play as I say and I will do the magic."

On the other hand, it is a pity that his political belief supporting Putin challenged his conducting position in the world. The current Russian regime may not be widely accepted in the international community. Due to Putin's band on homosexual propaganda, his performance at the Carnegie Hall was interrupted by a LGBT activist group in 2013. Some article even questioned why did he perform Tchaikovsky's pieces if he is against homosexual freedom. Although I think the public overreacted a bit on this, I agree that political and artistic belief are aligned. They affects the morale of orchestra players who decide whether to follow the conductor or not. Meanwhile, I genuinely hope he can still perform freely around the world.

Reference: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/nov/06/gergiev-s-credibility-has-been-shot-to-pieces