The bassoon. Such a strange instrument – it looks like a piece of plumbing equipment, and it’s got more keys than a janitor. And yet, in the hands of soloists Wren Saunders and Stevi Caulfield at the Bangor Symphony Orchestra’s concert on Sunday afternoon, it sounded playful, lively and even a little bit sexy.

Saunders and Caulfield took the stage at Peakes Auditorium at Bangor High School, striking in their red and black dresses, and tackled the demanding “Concerto in F Major for Two Bassoons” by classical-era composer Jean-Baptiste Vanhal. The rollicking first movement gave concertgoers a chance to witness each musician’s distinctive style – Saunders stoic and precise, Caulfield with furrowed brows, swaying to the music. Maestro Xiao-Lu Li kept the mood light and bouncy.

The andante second movement lost some of the momentum built by the frisky, capricious first third, but the energy returned with the delightful finale. The two bassoonists were echoed by their fellow double-reed players, the oboists, like two pairs of cousins calling across a field to one another. In the hands of such spirited, technically gifted musicians as Saunders and Caulfield, the bassoon can be a very engaging instrument indeed.

The other featured soloist of the night, BSO concertmaster Trond Saeverud, took on the thrilling “Tzigane,” composed by Maurice Ravel in the 1920s. Inspired by Hungarian gypsy music, “Tzigane” is both a dazzling display of technical prowess, and a passionate, earthy tribute to the traditions of gypsy culture.

Saeverud seemed to understand both those aspects, as he dove into the opening violin cadenza, wringing sorrowful tones from the lower register before leaping up the harmonic minor scale. When the orchestra enters, the mood turns dissonant and ominous before resolving into a more traditional folk melody. Like the gypsy culture from which it comes, there are lots of shades and colors in “Tzigane,” and Maestro Li explored them all – the mysterious, the brash, the mischievous.

After a bright, good-natured reading of Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 8, Op. 93, F major,” which Li described as the composer’s “love” symphony, the Maestro announced a special addition to the program. Edward “Ted” Leonard III, husband to BSO President Sandra Leonard, was a lifelong friend of the symphony, and died on Oct. 27. In his memory, the orchestra performed Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings.”

Li, setting down his baton in favor of conducting simply with his hands, asked the audience to feel the sound “vibrating on top of the sky.” It is hard not to be moved by such a piece, with its long, slow unfurling of melody, restating the main theme in various ways. At the climactic moment, when all the violins oscillate together at their highest register, it was, in a word, heavenly.