Conductor Uri Barnea got lucky when he was slotted to direct the final concert of the season for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and faced a program of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3. What true-hearted musician wouldn’t want the challenge of lifting a baton to shape these two astounding pieces?

But it takes more than luck to unify an orchestra and more than 150 singers for a concert marked by discriminating musical insight, balance, warmth and excitement, all of which Maestro Barnea accomplished at the BSO season closer Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

As the fifth and final contender for the position of music director and conductor of the BSO, Barnea has a confident, polished and careful style.

His approach to the two works proved he could do exceptional work with the musicians, but also that he understands the place of an orchestra in elevating a community.

Barnea is not a haughty man, but he has clear philosophical goals.

In a statement that he read from the stage, Barnea spoke of Beethoven’s poetic imperatives for the 9th, the themes of Creation and the connectedness of all humanity.

He also acknowledged the eagerness and cooperation of the musicians. But he needn’t have mentioned either, really, because a muscular first movement, a rolling second movement, a meticulously searching third movement and the finale – which blew the roof off the MCA – said it all.

You couldn’t ask for more congenial soloists than stunning baritone Drew Poling, tenor Brian Fithian, solid mezzo-soprano Gloria Raymond, and Elena DiSiervo, whose soprano may have been the biggest instrument onstage, if not in town.

She is a star whenever she parts her lips in song. The only snag was Fithian’s understated tenor, which was so thin it washed away in the reverberant glory of the chorus.

In the larger picture, however, much credit for the passion, freshness and particularity of the massive group of singers goes to Ludlow Hallman and Dennis Cox, who, respectively, prepared the Oratorio Society and the University of Maine Singers to perform with elegance and pounding verve.

The Bach Orchestral Suites hold a special place for anyone drawn to dignified dance music, and Barnea tapped into a choreographic pulse and measured constancy.

He combined astute evenness with soft lyricism that created a rather pleasant tension in the piece.

It was relaxed and intimate rather than showy or sprightly but it had gravity, too. In the midst of a formal hall, Barnea created a chamber music moment, forsaking heavy-handedness and finding a tranquillity and melancholy that chugged along like a machine.

Even if some may have found the Bach tempos slightly slow or Beethoven’s raucous parts overly bombastic, the concert is sure to linger in memory or echo in dreams for a long time to come. That, too, is part of conductor Barnea’s philosophical and civic mission.

Administrators at the BSO project that the new music director and conductor will be named by the end of May.