Nathalie Stutzmann made her National Symphony Orchestra debut last season singing the contralto part in Dvorak’s cantata, “Stabat Mater.” Audiences were serenaded by her voice, as deep and rich as maroon velvet. This week she returns to display its succulence in a performance of Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” a song cycle inspired while the composer and his wife were staying on the estate of his patron, Otto Wesendonck.

He based the songs on poems written by Wesendonck’s wife, Mathilde. Some speculate that Wagner and Mathilde were romantically involved. Whether or not this is the case, he was working on “Die Walkure” at the time and the themes of “Tristan and Isolde” are plainly evident. Although his original version was for a female voice and piano, he orchestrated it for a chamber orchestra to play beneath Mathilde’s window on her birthday. The first song is “Der Engel” (the angel), the second is “Stehe still!” (stand still), and the fourth is “Schmerzen” (sorrows). He designated the other two as “studie zu ‘Tristan und Isolde.’ ”