The best way to improve an orchestra? Get rid of the bloke with the baton

I have seen the future of orchestral music. And boy, is it good. Spira Mirabilis are an un-conducted ensemble drawn from some of Europe's best young orchestral players, most of them under 30. In residence at the Aldeburgh festival this week, they'll be playing two concerts, with just a single, short symphony in each: the fourth symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert. But don't let the familiarity of the music fool you: Spira Mirabilis represent a transformative vision of what a symphony orchestra can be. They are a revelation, proof that musicians can not only survive but prosper when liberated from the variously benign or malevolent dictatorships created by the world's conductors.

There are already famous examples of virtuoso ensembles who choose life without a maestro: the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. But mostly, the bands who play without a conductor replace the stick-wielder with a musician who leads from the first violins – so they're not as democratic as they seem.

With Spira Mirabilis, it's different – and not just because they sit in a miraculous spiral (the geometrical form found in seashells and sunflowers that inspired their name). The common complaints in orchestras, especially British ones, is that there isn't enough rehearsal time; no one is allowed to voice an opinion apart from the bloke (usually) on the podium; and there's too much to do with too little energy. Well, Spira Mirabilis have the answer to all three problems.

I've just been watching the 34-strong band rehearse the Beethoven, and it was extraordinary. They spent three and a half hours working on the first movement; music that plays for about 10 minutes in performance. And every detail of phrasing, articulation, speed and loudness was argued over by every-one from the back desk of the second violins to the first oboe, before the group decided on a collective vision.

If that makes Spira Mirabilis sound like a European parliament meeting, a talking shop where everyone is allowed to speak and inertia is the result, I can only say that that's not what happens. The players put the music first: they come up with their own coherent interpretation. They investigate their ideas to extremes, trying out the fastest, the slowest, the most expressive approaches. Even in rehearsal, the result is thrilling, because each note is new-minted, the result of a struggle to grapple with the true meaning of Beethoven's score.

As violinist Lorenza Borrani, one of Spira's founders, told me, each musician has to fight to convince the group why their vision is right; the players can only win their case through rigorous argument. Yet, as well as all these individual ideas, there's a collective energy at work. Whatever their personal feelings, the players arrive at a scintillating result because of the closeness of their relationships.

Spira Mirabilis are proof that musical democracy works. Hearing them play Beethoven was like seeing an image through a telescope come magically into focus. Their example should be followed everywhere. Great orchestras, like the Berlin or Vienna Philharmonics, often describe what they're doing as chamber music on a symphonic scale. This is even more true of Spira Mirabilis. On Wednesday, they play Schubert in Suffolk. Get there if you can.

Now for some tawdry politics

Meanwhile, in the upper echelons of the European festival circuit, news emerges that Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle will take over from the Berlin Philharmonic next year as orchestra-in-residence at the Salzburg Easter festival. The announcement follows Simon Rattle and the Berliners' decision to quit, ending an association that started in 1967 when Herbert von Karajan, then in charge of the Berlin Phil, founded the Easter fest as a showcase for his orchestra.

This is rather more than a storm in a gilded teacup. Members of the festival management have been investigated for corruption after an embezzlement scandal. The result was a nasty tale of cover-ups and attempted suicide that Peter Alward's appointment as managing director last year was designed to mark a clean break from. The city's government spoke of its "incomprehension and disappointment" at the Berliners' decision, but Thielemann's appointment has been welcomed. That's no surprise: Thielemann is Karajan's self-appointed successor in terms of his uber-Teutonic repertoire, and his big-boned approach to music-making.

It's a revival of old-school musical autocracy. You see? Talking about conductors only gets you on to tawdry politics. Spira Mirabilis would have none of it.

On my radar

On my bedside table: Roger Penrose's Cycles of Time. Conformal cyclic cosmology for beginners. Allegedly.

On my iPod: Mark Elder's Elgar, the best in the business.

On my TV: Nighty Night. Otherwise it just gets messy.

In my diary: Havergal Brian's record-breaking Gothic Symphony, with 1,000 performers, at the Proms in July.