I have come home after another symphony rehearsal both happy with our new conductor's energy, and disappointed in the fact that so many musicians play so damned sharp all the time. For the uninitiated, what I mean is that individuals continually play their notes on the too-high side, rather than right on.
This is typical of instrumentalists who play something other than the piano or the harp, both of which require tuning well in advance of any rehearsal or concert.
There are various reasons for playing sharp, for example, wind instruments naturally rise in pitch when warm air is passed through the body, and the musician must compensate by supporting the tone to keep the pitch where it should be.
String players, most notably violinists who play in a very high register to begin with, tend towards sharpness not only because their ears are trying to adjust to the sharpness of the winds and brass, but because higher pitches are easier to hear. I have noticed any number of string-playing soloists who intentionally tune their axes on the high side. Fine for a soloist who doesn't have to match pitch with eight other people, but in a section of the orchestra it stinks.
I recall a rehearsal of last season wherein the harp had a big entrance by herself, right after an extended woodwind lick. Upon making her entrance, the whole orchestra suddenly looked up with a collective grimace, and our poor harpist's face was drained of color, fully in shock. The harp sounded horribly, horribly out of tune, which of course, it was not. The woodwinds had been playing considerably sharp for some time, and her well-tuned instrument simply sounded wrong in contrast. This is why it matters.......
I give our new guy credit for actually saying "you are sharp" to some musicians in the orchestra, and hope to god that he keeps it up. He even told our violins at one point to follow the pitch of the cellos (!), which immediately endeared him to my entire section. I have never worked with a conductor who has either A) mentioned correcting sharp pitch in any meaningful way, B) shown any understanding of how to correct the problem or, C) even noticed the sharpness to begin with.
I am quite sure that top-notch world-class (and whatever other hyphenated terms you can think of) symphony orchestras don't have such issues, which makes me certain this is what separates the great from the mediocre. It has little to do with how fast your fingers are, and everything to do with zen-like control of your sound.
 Mark Kosower, principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra is the Zen Master of the cello. He has performed with my other orchestra twice now, and both times his unaccompanied Bach encores made me cry for sheer serenity, clarity and absolutely perfect pitch. His playing is masterfully simple.....Not a bunch of physical commotion and wooing the audience like a drama queen. He doesn't need to. He has you from the first note to the last, as though he were sharing the most intimate secret with you alone. I wish I could sit in the cello section in Cleveland, just to bask in the sheer joy of balanced, beautifully tuned music.
I will just have to believe that progress in our own orchestra is imminent.