Portuguese composer and conductor Álvaro Cassuto has died aged 87.

Born in Porto in 1938, Álvaro Cassuto became a young student of violin, piano and composition with leading masters that included Fernando Lopes-Graça, Pedro de Freitas Branco and Herbert von Karajan. In 1959 he began his career as an avant-garde composer who would be the first Portuguese writer to adopt the twelve-tone system. He made his debut as a conductor with the Porto Symphony Orchestra in 1961, subsequently serving as deputy music director of the Portuguese National Radio Symphony Orchestra (1970 to 1974) before rising to be its music director (1975 to 1987). During this time he also worked with the University of California Symphony Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Orchestra of New York.

Although he was regularly invited to conduct first-rate orchestras around the world, it was with orchestras that were receptive to the services of an ‘orchestra builder’ that he developed the major part of his career. Throughout that career he always took advantage of the opportunity to promote the orchestral music of Portuguese composers, producing numerous recordings of these works for Naxos that were met with enthusiastic critical reviews. It is fitting to quote from a review of his final release for us, in 2018, that comprised a programme of eight world premiere recordings of orchestral works by Joly Braga Santos, Portugal’s greatest composer:

“The performances are superb … Great praise is due to Cassuto. He is not only a brilliant conductor, but almost single-handedly has seen to it that we have the opportunity to hear this and other engaging music of his country. He has done for Portuguese music what Koussevitzky, Stock, Stokowski, Schwarz and Slatkin have done for American music. That is an amazing accomplishment.” (Fanfare)

Álvaro Cassuto Biography & Discography