Less is not necessarily more. Sometimes more is simply more, as Sunday’s concert by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra, accompanied by more than 120 singers, proved. Appearing before a full house at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono, the combined voices of the University of Maine Oratorio Society and the University of Maine Singers pumped up the volume and ramped up the energy during a program of selected opera choruses.

With the singers seated to the rear of the stage, Director Xiao-Lu Li took the stage to warm applause. Without further ado, Maestro Li launched the BSO into the first movement of Paul Hindemith’s “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber,” a lighthearted allegro with trilling, quirky melodies featuring the always excellent woodwinds playing with and against the brasses.

The second movement, with references to the opera “Turandot,” was outstanding for a lyrical flute passage performed with quiet delicacy by principal flutist Susan Heath. It ended with an all-out percussive frenzy, including gongs, bells, chimes and wooden blocks.

The fourth movement, “Marsch,” also was particularly compelling as woodwinds and horns united in a spirited and tonally complex conclusion.

After appreciative applause, Li motioned the singers to rise and it was time to hear the combined sound of about 200 musicians and singers. There is something intrinsically thrilling about hearing live, unamplified music, with a dynamic range wide enough to have you leaning forward in your seat to catch the quiet bits, then loud enough to make you physically feel the music as it swells to full volume.

All in all, the combined

choruses and orchestra worked well together, although at times the singers’ volume nearly overwhelmed the orchestra entirely. The soprano sections of the choruses also seemed to be struggling during their performance of the “Bell Chorus” from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera “Pagliacci,” although the tenors in particular and the chorus as a whole made a good combined effect.

In remarks to the audience, Li said he hoped to have them humming melodies as they left. Of the choruses, he added, “When they sing, I get goose bumps!”

The best performances of the combined choruses and orchestra came in two pieces with very different moods: the gentle and almost ambient “Humming Chorus” from Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” and the testosterone-rich, brash and loud “Anvil Chorus” from Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” Each of these pieces was performed impeccably, leaving the listener with a distinct and memorable flavor.

After the intermission, the orchestra returned alone to finish the second half of the concert with performances of Charles Ives’ “Variations on America” and Ottorino Respighi’s “Pines of Rome.”

Although the Respighi was dramatic and exciting, the most moving work of the evening was the Ives piece, with its kaleidoscopic view of all that is America. At turns bombastic, neurotic, frightening, sincere and ultimately noble, this music felt like a reflection of current events, a call to examine what this country is and what it should be.

The Bangor Symphony Orchestra performs next at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 16, at the Maine Center for the Arts. The concert will feature Maine High School Concerto Competition winner Reed Gochberg in a performance of Doppler’s “Fantasie Pastorale Hongroise” and works by Schubert, Bizet and Wang. For more information, call 1-800-639-3221 or visit www.bangorsymphony.com.