For mountain climbers, the ultimate triumph is Mount Everest. For college graduates, it’s magna cum laude. For cellists, it’s Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B minor. Characterized by an eloquent richness, technical rigor and emotional intensity, the piece has long been recognized as one of the crowning works for solo cello. Artistically and technically, the Dvorak is a swift measure of dexterity, nimbleness and grace. Those in the field know that the Dvorak is practically de rigueur in auditions. It has the power to wow jurors and influence judges, as well as to shape young artists.

“I got to this gargantuan work at the age of 17,” said international cellist Amos Yang. “I’ve been in love with it ever since then.”

Yang, who is a member of the Seattle Symphony, will perform the Dvorak on Sunday with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The hefty program will also feature Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Brahms’ Haydn Variations.

Adele Adkins, principal cellist with the BSO, played the Dvorak concerto in a competition when she was a 20-year-old student at The Juilliard School. Sunday’s concert will be the first time she has played the work as a member of the orchestra. For the ensemble musicians, the score is equally complex and rich – “a duo of solo cello and orchestra,” Adkins said.

“It’s probably considered by most cellists as one of the most important and biggest concertos ever written,” she added. “It’s certainly in the top five. It’s not only a great showcase for a solo cello. It’s an amazing symphonic work as well.”

While Adkins has been learning the orchestral score, Yang has been refreshing his mastery of the solo part. Not long ago, he returned to an original video recording he still has from when he was 17.

“I watched it and I was horrified,” said Yang, who met his wife, violinist Alicia Yang, at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival. “You can tell this person has a lot of promise but he sounds incredibly young. You don’t realize at 17 what teachers or other musicians mean when they say you really shouldn’t tackle that piece because you’re a little too young. As a young musician, you don’t understand what they are after. You have to grow old and look back.”

For Yang, who is also a graduate of Juilliard, it’s a matter of maturity and timing. He now plays the piece more slowly and thoughtfully, devotes himself to the integrity and nuances of each note and emotional expression.

When he was younger, Yang, like many musicians, would use experiences from his life to inform and infuse the magical, lyrical passages of the Dvorak. For instance, when he first studied it, he was heading to college for the first time and was experiencing homesickness. Now that he’s older, he said, “the piece seems so much larger than that.”

That’s not to say he doesn’t still use memories and experiences to tap into the music. He does. But as a seasoned chamber and orchestral musician, it’s more of a technique for jump-starting him during fallow moments rather than inspiring him musically.

On a deeper level, when a piece of music is being filtered through him, Yang thinks in terms of a painter.

“If I listen to something and it doesn’t sound quite right, I say I didn’t get the right colors,” said Yang. “Some painters are expressionistic. Some are realist. In the same way, I have a choice. I can’t change what the composer wrote, just as a painter can’t change the scene. That would be dishonest. But I can change a million other things so that what the viewer sees or the listener hears is through my eyes, my ears. There’s an essence to each of the pieces and you have to try the best to make it individual without distorting.”

And then there’s the audience, said Yang.

“We need the audience,” he said. “The audience provides energy and feedback. Most audience members don’t realize how much feedback we actually get from them in the hall – the type of silence, whether it’s an energized silence, whether they’re actively listening. It’s something performers feel. And it’s not just the amount of applause. It’s everything between when I sit down and when I stand up again.”

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra, with guest cellist Amos Yang, will perform 3 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. For tickets, call 581-1755.