You’d have to be an curmudgeon of a concertgoer not to be warmed by the classical concert offered by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra Sunday at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.

If you could forgive the shuffles of latecomers during the first number, and could block out the persistent candy-wrapper fidgets, the sneezers, coughers and even a crying baby, then this concert was, indeed, filled with warmth. Not that anybody needed to be literally warmed, mind you — the temperature of the concert hall was about as steamy as a sauna. In fact, one musician, who had come to the concert in poor health, left the stage during the last work — her condition, no doubt, exacerbated by the heat.

Still, despite these generally unavoidable distractions, the music won out. And anyone paying sole attention to what was going on onstage would have to agree that the Bangor Symphony is sounding quite admirable these days.

However, there were moments in the presentation of Carl Maria von Weber’s “Overture to Der Freischutz” when the strings could have been more incisive. Or when the interpretation could have been more enthusiastic for this romantic celebration of German folklore and its sinister and supernatural aspects. There was an epic quality to much of the performance, but it simply did not have the continuous, cohesive attack that this overture — a favorite in Germany, by the way — requires.

The same could not be said of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major for violin, viola and orchestra. With guest soloists Dara Burkholder on violin and Maria Molina on viola, this piece drove itself right through a nap anyone might have been lulled into taking because of the heat.

The soloists were actually steaming in their own right and each in a distinctive fashion. Burkholder was tensely technical and seriously careful as she minutely articulated the trills and strains of her part. She was snappy and crisp and silvery.

Molina was more subtle, showing off the viola as an instrument of prestigious brilliance and cordiality. She didn’t waste any time showing her depth as a musician either.

For their ages (Burkholder is 19, Molina 22), these two women offered a youthful excellence that promises them both solid careers. And the Bangor Symphony, led by Christopher Zimmerman, certainly shared the accomplishments of this concerto-like composition. The drama of the basses, the laughter of the violins, and the buzzing of the oboes and horns made this performance a standing-ovation success.

The final half of the concert was rather exciting, too, with Zimmerman again going for the all-out drama and exuberance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major. The repetition of musical patterns many times in succession was something between dizzying and hilarious, and Zimmerman definitely caught the humor available in these ostinatos.

Indeed, with the free-wheeling lightness of the first, third and fourth movements there was no trouble seeing why Wagner called this symphony the “apotheosis of dance.” But equally entertaining — if not enlightening — were the violas, cellos and basses in the more somber allegretto. A procession of slow-moving bows and languid woodwinds made this movement elegantly — rather than dismally — funereal.

The next scheduled activity for the Bangor Symphony organization begins at the end of this month with a residency by the National Symphony Orchestra. The next classical symphony by the actual Bangor Symphony is in March, and Sunday’s concert was sure to leave avid concertgoers looking forward to more ahead.