Conductor Ion Marin's biography describes him as a "partisan of itinerancy". This gobbledygook translates as a musician who spends his time jetting from one great orchestra to another as a guest conductor. However, he has managed to build a close partnership with the Dresden Staatskapelle, and their concert at the Barbican presented showpieces by Weber, Hindemith, and Strauss.

Sadly, Marin's relationship with this music was as itinerant as his hectic schedule. And not only did he not connect with the programme, there was precious little rapport between him and the players.

It should be impossible to make the virtuosic spectacle of Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra sound routine, especially with the Dresden Staatskapelle. The orchestra had a 60-year association with the composer, and his music is at the heart of their repertoire. There was no doubting the luxurious richness of their sound, the result of a history that stretches back to 1548, making them one of the oldest orchestras in the world. The voluptuous sheen of the strings was the bedrock of the texture, while the woodwind and brass were sumptuously refined.

Yet the orchestra played as if on autopilot. Beauty of sound is one thing, meaningful interpretation is another. Marin was content to glide through Strauss's depiction of Nietzsche's superhuman struggle. His flamboyance on the podium replaced the work's philosophical transcendence with a celebration of his ego. The performance was thoroughly earthbound, even in the hyperbole of the famous opening. And there were surprising slips of ensemble, as if Marin's gestures were removed and dislocated from the players.

Hindemith's Mathis der Maler Symphony was more successful. The orchestra turned this dense piece into an essay in clarity and finesse. But the delicacy of Weber's Euryanthe Overture was smothered by Marin's lacklustre, unimaginative interpretation.