Violinist Joshua Bell

>> Leading the major events this week is a recital by violinist Joshua Bell on Wednesday night (January 26, 8 p.m.). Bell will perform with pianist Sam Haywood, in an event presented by Washington Performing Arts Society in the Music Center at Strathmore. Bell, who caused quite a stir a few years ago by volunteering to play incognito during rush hour in the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station, will play music by Brahms, Schubert and Grieg.

>> Christoph Eschenbach leads a program of Berg and Beethoven with the National Symphony Orchestra this week (January 27 to 29). Besides Beethoven’s famous fifth symphony, the NSO’s lead violinist Nurit Bar-Josef, cellist David Hardy and pianist Lambert Orkis will play Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall.

>> Violist Roger Tapping, éminence grise formerly of the distinguished Takács Quartet, joins the Ariel String Quartet on Friday (January 28, 8 p.m.) in the superb auditorium of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The program also features quartets by Beethoven and Berg, with one of Mozart’s exquisite string quintets (D major, K. 593) to feature Tapping.