Instrumental music’s connection to words and text may seem odd or even impossible, but this is what makes finding a connection even more interesting. Can we find connections in the life of a composer, or in a point of inspiration, or in the thread of storytelling? This concert features works by Hildegard von Bingen, composer and poet, to Canadian Jean Coulthard’s Essays for Octet, Frank Bridge’s “Novelletten,” and Leos Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1, inspired by Tolstoy’s short story “The Kreutzer Sonata.”