Dennis Russell Davies has had a busy couple of weeks in New York. First, he conducted the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz on three nights at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. These performances included the premiere of Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 8.Then he appeared with Maki Namekawa in a duo-piano recital at the Miller Theatre. And on Sunday afternoon at Avery Fisher Hall, he conducted the Bruckner Orchestra in a concert of Korngold and … well, Bruckner. I suppose that orchestra feels a certain obligation.

Mr. Davies – born in Toledo, Ohio – became chief conductor of the Linz orchestra in 2002. In his long career, he has emphasized the contemporary, co-founding the American Composers Orchestra in 1977.He has conducted innumerable premieres. But he is also friendly to the more established repertory. Last season at the Metropolitan Opera, he conducted the world’s favorite double bill, “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “I Pagliacci.” He did so with honor. Of course, those were real shockers when they were new. And I have described Mr. Davies as a tonsorial extremist: Years ago, he sported a long ponytail; today, not a hair, a la Kojak.

The concert on Sunday afternoon opened with Korngold’s violin concerto, a Romantic, glittery, heartfelt affair famously premiered and recorded by Jascha Heifetz. When it debuted in New York – in 1947 – it was the target of one of the most notorious critical putdowns in musical history. “More corn than gold,” was the line. (Get it? “Korngold.”) The critic was Irving Kolodin; and the newspaper was – drum roll, please – The New York Sun.

Clever as Kolodin’s line was, it was way off-base, a proud misjudgment. But those words will live forever, I’m afraid.

Snickered at for decades – in large part because of that one-liner – the Korngold concerto has undergone a revival in recent years, championed in particular by two young and gifted violinists: Gil Shaham and Benjamin Schmid. Both have recorded the work (Mr. Schmid with Seiji Ozawa, Mr. Shaham with Andre Previn, king of Korngold conductors – one Hollywood guy paying tribute to another). (In fact, Mr. Previn has recorded the concerto with his wife, too – the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.) The soloist in Sunday afternoon’s performance was another young violinist, Renaud Capucon, a Frenchman not yet 30. Among his teachers was the late Isaac Stern, whose violin – a Guarneri del Gesu – Mr. Capucon uses today. The young man is widely recorded, particularly in chamber music, which he often plays with his brother, the cellist Gautier.

In the first movement of the Korngold, Mr. Capucon demonstrated a sweet tone and musical presence of mind. Obviously, he loves this music: He swooned (physically) along with it. But poor intonation was intrusive. Much of the second movement – the Canzonetta – Mr. Capucon sang meltingly, but intonation was an even worse problem: It was hard to discern where bad intonation left off and outright wrong notes began. As for the Finale, it should express a kind of clockwork gaiety, as well as soaring passion. Mr. Capucon and the orchestra did not give it its full effect – the orchestra was too dense and balky, for one thing – but this movement was passable.

Some of us feel protective about the Korngold concerto, not wanting it to be dismissed as cinematic dreck – as corn. So when a performance is subpar, we feel that our side has been let down.

The Avery Fisher Hall audience, however, heartily approved this performance, and asked for an encore: Mr. Capucon obliged with a little Gluck melody, in D minor, played as meltingly as the Canzonetta, and with (much) better intonation.

The Bruckner on the program was that composer’s Symphony No. 8, which some regard as the greatest symphony ever written, no less. You don’t have to think that to know that this work is immortal (like Irving Kolodin’s putdown). Mr. Davies and the orchestra played the 1887 version of the Eighth, for those who like to keep track of such matters.

This was not a bad performance, but neither was it great – not one to make you forget Hans Knappertsbusch (the long-ago German conductor who conducted the Eighth, and other Bruckner, surpassingly). This account did not have technical polish, it did not have beautiful or otherwise interesting sounds, it did not have vaulting spirituality. The Scherzo – to cite one movement – should have been a hundred times more tense. At the beginning of the symphony, the horns played bravely and accurately, but they soon faltered, bobbling and straining all over the place. Your lips almost hurt for them.

And the harps? Seldom have you heard any so clunky and rough. They were less like angels than longshoremen.

But Mr. Davies and the orchestra did many things well: Musical architecture was clear, tempos were sensible, eccentricities were avoided. The awesome Adagio built intelligently. Overall, this performance was competent. Dennis Russell Davies will never give you less than competent. Often he gives you considerably more.

Allow me to conclude with a couple of side notes: At the end of Korngold’s slow movement, some of the audience wanted to applaud, and others in the audience shushed them, violently. As I always say: The shushing is much, much worse than the applauding (or the talking or whatever else is being shushed). Besides, applause between movements – certainly in the Korngold Violin Concerto! – is not necessarily gauche.

And I have a cell-phone story: Coinciding perfectly – or disastrously – with one of Bruckner’s long rests, a phone went off. Remember, the orchestra was playing nothing at this time. The cell phone played the Cingular theme. And that tune – trust me – is pretty weak in the context of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. But I guess we can call this a Cingular performance.

(Many apologies.)