Well, I haven't played for some years now, but my take on it was that the conductor did shape the performance during rehearsal while the orchestra was learning a piece. For a performance, we always used to joke that the conductor's sole function was starting and stopping the orchestra. Some truth to that...
A professional orchestra (as in one of the majors NYP, SFSO, CSO, etc.) probably do not spend that much time in rehearsal for any given concert as I am sure it is assumed that you pretty much know any piece that is going to be played; certainly not as much time as we had to. I would still say that the conductors main influence is felt during rehearsal however.
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