If the listener experiences the opening of Conrad Cummings’ “Dénouement” – a sudden eruption of vivid brass riffs over churnings ostinatos – as coming out of nowhere, that is precisely the composer’s intention. This colorful work plays with our sense of narrative context. Hearing “Dénouement” is like walking into the end of an intense conversation, one that has been going on for some time, or suddenly turning on the tape of a highly charged piece of music toward the end.

What “Dénouement” evokes is a desire to hear the whole story, mystifying us in a fun, novel way. The composer describes the experience in theatrical terms: “Imagine walking into the middle of the final act of a classical tragedy you don’t know – right off the street, straight into the point of highest agitation. You have no idea how things got to this point. All that is left is for you to watch the action play out to its final, fatal conclusion.”

–for the New Jersey Symphony performances, by Jack Sullivan

Bob Spano didn’t think I was nuts when I told him I wanted to do a version of “Denouement” for ninety-piece orchestra, and he agreed to conduct it with the Oberlin Orchestra. While I worked on it, his career took off exponentially. He later did it with the New Jersey Symphony and with the Louisville Orchestra. I was so fortunate to have his help all through, and that of Greg Fulkerson on quite a few late nights, helping me take the feeling of being enveloped in sound at the keyboard end of a harpsichord and translating it into an experience that could fill a whole orchestra hall. It took three tries to get it exactly right, with revisions between each. By Louisville – well, a composer couldn’t wish for a more perfect performance.

–Conrad Cummings