On Wednesday and Thursday nights, the Dresden Staatskapelle was supposed to play concerts in Carnegie Hall. It did. It was supposed to be led by the man who was its chief conductor, Bernard Haitink. It was not. Last summer, Mr. Haitink had a fierce dispute with Dresden management, and relinquished his position, beginning in November. He was replaced – at least on this American tour – by Myung-Whun Chung, the Korean conductor who has spent much of his career in France. The Carnegie Hall programming changed, too: On the second night, we were to hear Mr. Haitink in Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7, which would have been nice – Mr. Haitink is lord of that symphony. Instead, the second concert turned all-Beethoven: It peddled the “Pastoral” and “Eroica” Symphonies.

The first concert – Wednesday’s concert – was all-Brahms, consisting of the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat and the Symphony No. 4 in E minor. Longtime readers will know my “rule”: If you’re going to play such familiar music – particularly in New York – you had better play it well. Mr. Chung, his soloist, Emanuel Ax, and the orchestra played it so-so-ly.

Myung-Whun Chung is part of one of the most famous musical families in the world: His sister is Kyung-Wha, the violinist, and his “other” sister – I hope she will forgive me – is Myung-Wha, a cellist. Mr. Ax is maybe the most ubiquitous musician in New York – aside from the music directors of our orchestras – and one of the most ubiquitous in the world. If two weeks have gone by without your having heard Mr. Ax, he may be sick.

Brahms’s Concerto No. 2 is one of the grandest of works, dubbed a “symphony with piano obbligato.” It begins with a famous horn solo, and the Staatskapelle’s player had some trouble: He was weak and flat. Mr. Ax, however, had little trouble at the piano, in this first movement. He was sensible, accurate, and compelling. He does not boast a distinctive sound – you would have trouble identifying him on the radio, if you happened on a recording in progress – but this is true of many, probably most, of today’s pianists.

In this first movement, Mr. Chung led the orchestra with restrained passion, which was right. He was overly deliberate at times, rather than affording Brahms his sweep. And on the last chord, he effected a never-heard diminuendo. Curious.

After a successful opening movement, the second – Allegro appassionato – came as a disappointment. It should have been far more sharply etched, and ferocious. Mr. Chung made some very ill-judged ritards, and the entire movement was wayward, undisciplined, almost a fantasia. Mr. Ax was sluggish and thick-fingered, and he and the orchestra were often not together. Neither was the orchestra together within itself.

The slow movement is one of the most beautiful in all of music, featuring a cello solo, which the Staatskapelle’s principal brought off nicely (if a bit swooningly). As for the pianist, his phrasing was stiff, if you like Brahms’s notes to cascade remorselessly. And this movement was not shaped so that its final section would have its maximum loveliness. I should note, too, that a lack of togetherness was again harmful.

You could argue that, in the last movement – the rondo – Mr. Ax’s tempo was too relaxed. In spirit, this movement was flat, limp, dutiful, although its final pages were perky. This was not a bad account of the Brahms Second; it was just an okay one. You may also wish to know that Mr. Ax refused to take his first bow without the cellist at his side. This confirmed his reputation as one of the Nice Guys in the music business.

After intermission, Mr. Chung and the Dresdeners played that symphony. It is hard to know how to criticize this performance, taken as a whole: It was not distinctively bad, and not distinctively good. I return to that problem of so-so. With European orchestras, we accept a certain casualness of execution, let us say. (I recall that two all-Brahms concerts from the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra last fall, in Avery Fisher Hall, were shockingly sloppy.) So, if you don’t get greased execution, what can make up for it? Beauty of sound, an overriding musicianship. The Dresden orchestra did provide a pleasing, burnished sound – very warm in the slow movement – although the musicianship was unspectacular.

And yet, we should listen for dogs not barking: Mr. Chung did not harm this music with ego, was not willful – did nothing egregious, did not commit Bernsteinian bathos. And here is a dog that did bark, delightfully: The third movement – Allegro giocoso – was crisp, robust … and together.

There was an encore – Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor, you say? (It is the most common orchestral encore in the world – and we reliably get it from German orchestras.) That was my prediction. But instead, we got that other Hungarian Dance in G minor: No. 1. Mr. Chung interpreted it with sensitivity and character. This was, indeed, some of the best playing of the night.