The Bethlehem Bach Festival has been an annual tradition for me for more than 40 years. In those years, I've missed few.

Bach Choir groupie or, more charitably, Bach devotee, that I may be, I've followed the choir to the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., the 10th anniversary of 9-11 concerts in New York City and the 1976 Bicentennial tour in Berlin, Germany, and (then) Leipzig, East Germany, among other locales, and written about and taken photos of the choir's concerts for newspapers, including the one you're reading now.

And yet returning to the source that is Bethlehem Bach Festival at Packer Church, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, where the 108th Festival continues May 8 and 9, is incomparable.

The May 2 weekend included a stunning Ifor Jones Memorial Chamber Music Concert by the Bach Festival Orchestra and Bach Chaconne Project.

Bach's "Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F Major, BWV 1046," was a morning wakeup better than a cup of fresh-brewed coffee.

Dr. Larry Lipkis, Moravian College composer-in-residence, directed the "Bach Chaconne Project," whereby area music students studied, wrote and played fully-realized, engaging and impressive variations on Bach's famous piece.

Caroline Goulding was phenomenal: fiery, passionate and dreamlike on Bach's "Chaconne in D Minor from Partita for solo violin, BWV 1004."

The program, repeated at 10:30 a.m. May 8, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University (with Elizabeth Field for the Chaconne), concluded with a towering achievement, Bach's "Orchestral Suite No. 4 in D Major, BMW 1069."

It was back to the mountainside for Bach's "Mass in B Minor, BWV 232," repeated at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. May 9, Packer Church, Lehigh University.

The magnificent tapestry of sound that is the 95-voice (by my count) Choir's opening Chorus to the B Minor "Kyrie" is like the Balm of Gilead. If, as Berthold Auerbach mused, "Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life," hearing the B Minor Mass gives a soul-cleansing to carry one through a year of everydays. The "Kyrie" soprano Duet by Agnes Zsigovics and Rosa Lamoreaux is a lovely segue to the Choir's wraparound "Kyrie."

The Choir's "Gloria" Chorus is an absolute swoon. Lamoreaux's Aria mingled exquisitely with Field's violin. The soprano and tenor Duet by Zsigovics and Stephen Ng, bolstered by Robin Kani's flute, is rhapsodic. Daniel Taylor's alto Aria, and Dashon Burton's bass Aria are especially memorable. (Interestingly, Burton sings from an electronic tablet rather than a sheet music book.). The Choir sings the concluding "Cum Sancto" Chorus with full-throated pleasure.

Following intermission and, outdoors, Hymns and Chorales by The Festival Brass Choir, the Choir's reassuring "Credo" opens the "Mass" second session followed soon by a splendid Duet by Zsigovics and Taylor. The Choir's "Et incarnatus" embodies the great mystery that is at the center of the "Credo," which explodes in the Choir's triumphant and the 38-member (by my count) Festival Orchestra's insistent "Et resurrexit" Chorus, confounding all human wisdom which the music embodies, summarized by William Sharp's Aria.

Under Bach Choir Artistic Director and Conductor Greg Funfgeld, the Choir's entrances are especially fine. The Choir's "Sanctus" Chorus is particularly solid. The Choir's "Osanna" Chorus is brisk and vibrant. The Choir's "Dona nobis" Chorus concludes the "Mass" with an air of satisfaction, renewing the listener's resolve, until the next Bethlehem Bach Festival.