The first Bethlehem Bach Festival that I attended was in 1971. Now, 45 years later, I am still amazed by the depth and breadth of the Festival, which seems to add interesting nuances every year. The 2016 Bethlehem Bach Festival is full of surprises and reassurances.

The reassurances have to do with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass In B Minor, which remains the centerpiece of the Festival, now in its 109th edition. The Festival continues May 20, 21 and 22 at several locations in Bethlehem.

This year again, members of the Bach Choir, Festival Orchestra, along with several soloists, presented a program at a venue other than Packer Church, where the Mass is presented each Saturday afternoon of the two-weekend Festival.

The 4 p.m. May 13 program at Incarnation of Our Lord Church included Handel and Vivaldi, plus a Festival Bach Cantata premiere, with personable commentary by Bach Choir Artistic Director-Conductor Greg Funfgeld and two of the soloists, Daniel Taylor, countertenor, and Benjamin Butterfield, tenor.

Verses from the operas “Rinaldo,” “Tolomeo” and “Cecilila” and the oratorios “Theodora” and “Semele” seemed to bring to life the statues from Biblical scenes adorning the gold-leaf spendor of the church sanctuary. The voice of Agnes Zsigovics, soprano, soared like the voice of an angel.

Funfgeld’s delicate dexterity at the harpsichord provided the perfect setting for Loretta O’Sullivan, cello, stunning in “Sonata IV in B Flat Major for Violincello, RV 45.”

Bach’s Cantata BVW 96, “Herr Christ, der einge Gottessohn” (“Lord Christ, God’s own Son”), included wonderful singing by Taylor, Butterfield, Zsigovics and Daniel Lichti, bass, with delightful solo work by Tricia Van Oers, recorder, all supported by Thomas Goeman, harpsichord.

The program is repeated at 4 p.m. May 20. Chamber Music in the Saal is repeated at 4 p.m. May 20 in the Moravian Museum, Bethlehem.

The May 13 dinner including a fascinating, fun and anecdote-filled talk by Dr. Larry Lipkis, Composer-in-Residence, Moravian College. Referring to the 8 p.m. May 13 and 20 concerts’ opener, Cantata BVW 100, “Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan” (“Whatever God does is done well”),” Lipkis said, “That’s Bach. He gives the players a workout.”

Indeed, the world-weary solace of Cantata 100 was brilliantly articulated in the soprano Aria by Rosa Lamoreaux, with Robin Kani, flute, providing sublime accompaniment, to open the 8 p.m. May 13 program, which is repeated at 8 p.m. May 20.

Funfgeld rendered the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047 at a brisk tempo with thrilling sound paintings by trumpet soloist Terry Everson, and segments where Everson; Robin Kani, flute; Mary Watt, oboe, and Elizabeth Field, violin, were as a chamber ensemble within the larger work.

“The Easter Oratorio BWV 249,” which anchors the May 13 and 20 program, opens with the beautiful “Sinfonia,” with a languid and expansive solo by Mary Watt, oboe, in the “Adagio.”

Zsigovics’ splendid and confident soprano Aria contrasted and blended impressively with Kani, her flute emphasizing the slight hesitation in the notes, combining to perfectly capture the lyrics’ poetry (“For only being crowned with wreaths of laurel will end your nervous longing.”).

Butterfield’s tenor Aria was undergirded with the smooth earnestness of the strings, again reflecting deeply the lyrics. Taylor’s alto Aria, supported by Nobuo Kitagawa, oboe d’amore, and backed seamlessly throughout by Charlotte Mattax Moersch, portativ organ.

The rousing Chorus by the Bach Choir concluded the Oratorio in splendid fashion.

The 10:30 a.m. May 14 Paul Taylor 2 Dance Company performance in Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, is one of the Festival surprises, conveying the exuberance of Bach in “Aureole,” performed to several Bach instrumentals, and ”Cascade,” performed to Bach’s “Harpsichord Concertos,” with Mattax Moersch flawless at the harpischord. Bach was interspersed with a sheer physicality that seemed to match the very notes of the score, with running, spinning, leaps, flailing arms, outstretched hands and turned-out toes, shoulder rolls, skips, hops, pauses, stops, starts and pirouettes, all executed with precision by the six dancers.

“Esplanade,” performed to Bach’s “Violin Concerto in E Major BWV 1042” and “Double Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor BWV 1043,” with Elizabeth Field, violin, and Claire Bright, violin, was the second half of the Taylor 2 performance, which is repeated at 10:30 a.m. May 21. The dancers created a streetscape, and intertwining lives, as if from childhood to adulthood. With dramatic lighting, including a diagonal shaft across the stage; a bouyancy as if floating on air, including several breathtaking leaps by a dancer into another’s arms, as well as reflective stillness, the dancers brought a high-energy excitement and fresh interpretation to Bach.

William Sharp, Bach Festival baritone soloist, in the May 14 luncheon talk which is repeated May 21, described Bach as his “desert-island composer,” having first heard the music of Bach as a teen. “This is central to me in my artistic life,” said Sharp of the Bethlehem Bach Festival.

Central to the Festival is the B Minor Mass, one of the reassurances, sung at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. May 14 and 21. This year, a “Bach Chorale Sing” is at 2 p.m. May 13 and 20 and 3:40 p.m. May 14 and 21, the latter outside Packer Church, where the Mass is sung.

From the opening “Kyrie” of the B Minor Mass, the some 88-member Choir again claimed it as its own masterpiece. The Mass is where the Choir gets to shine. The choir alternates with Lamoreaux, whose singing has the quality of several voices singing at once, and Zsigovics, for their superb soprano duet in the “Kyrie,” and Lamoreaux in the soprano Aria in the “Gloria.”

The “Gloria” includes the Choir framing the soprano and tenor Duet by Zsigovics and Butterfield, the alto Aria by Taylor and the bass Aria by Daniel Lichti, the latter with delightful solo by Anthony Cecere, French horn.

Part 2 is always bittersweet because it is the beginning of the end of the Mass, starting with the “Credo,” with its soprano and alto Duet by Zsigovics and Taylor; Choir sectional breakouts, and bass Ario by Sharp, leading to a magnificent final Chorus by the Choir.

Under Funfgeld’s expressive conducting, the “Sanctus,” with its swirling volleys of sound powered by the propulsive, almost aggressive playing of the 36-piece Festival Orchestra, builds to a dramatic peak and an irresistible conclusion of the highest music-making.

The May 14 near-capacity crowd of an estimated 1,100 greeted the conclusion of the Mass with a sustained standing ovation that returned the soloists to the stage to take their bows. The Mass in B Minor is Bach’s blockbuster.

This is the most beautiful music performed in one of the most beautiful settings by the world’s best Bach Choir, Festival Orchestra, conductor and soloists.

The Bethlehem Bach Festival in 2016 again proved to be a profound and deeply-moving experience.

Ticket information: bach.org/festival, 610-866-4382