I still believe that the real evaluation of a performer must be in action and not throught recordings
I fully agree with you: a bad conductor can hardly cheat in a concert.
I think that Luisi is interesting enough as a conductor; he is the titular in Dresden and Vienna (Symphony). I have attended 3 concerts conducted by him, all of them quite exciting. A dull and languid performance of the Siegfried-Idylle was not a good omen... However, Ein Heldenleben was magnificent, plenty of glitter, mostly because the orchestra (Staatskapelle Dresden) is really unbeatable in the Strauss repertoire; but the musicians were ruled with firm hand that night. Then I heard a very stylish M1, with the Dresden as well: that was the very first time I heard the double-bass solo, in the beginning of the 3rd movement, played by the full section of the double-basses... practice that seems to be followed by other conductors nowadays, but whose reason I ignore.. I remember it lacked a bit of forcefulness in some passages of the 4th movement, but anyway it was in general a quite noticeable performance of Mahler, very well "explained" and Mahler tasted...
Finally I saw him conduct a beautiful program with Schubert 8th and 9th symphonies, with the Vienna Symphony: the 8th was correct, not too much atmospheric, but good; the 9th was splendid: transparent, light, even nervous in some passages, it reminded me of the old Schuricht performance with the SDR.
In short I think he deserves to attend his concerts or to listen his recordings with interest.
