Primo Casale

Primo Casale

Works for Cello

Nocturno (1932), for cello and piano.

Serenatela (1949), for four cellos.

Serenatela (1953), for cello and piano.

Italia (1954), for cello and piano.

Sonata in C Major, for cello and piano.

Sources:

Grove Music Online: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46807 - last access: October 10, 2021.

Furman Schleifer, M., and Galván, G (2016). Latin American Classical Composers, A Biographical Dictionary. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

Primo Casale

Venezuelan composer and conductor, born in 1904, died in 1981.

Primo Casale was a Venezuelan composer and conductor born in Lombardy, Italy in 1904. He studied violin and composition at the Milan Conservatory and performed as an orchestral violinist at La Scala. Casale toured as a conductor with his own chamber orchestra in Italy and Germany, and eventually emigrated to Venezuela in 1948 where he taught harmony at Caracas’ Lamas School of Music. He additionally taught counterpoint and composition at the Conservatorio Juan José Landaeta. 

Casale was instrumental in the development of Venezuelan opera, founding and directing Opera of Caracas in 1949, as well as conducting the revival of the first Venezuelan opera, José Angel Montero’s Virginia. Casale was also known as one of the most influential teachers of Venezuela, teaching important composers and conductors such as Alfredo del Mónaco, Federico Ruiz, María Guinand and Carmen Helena Téllez. In addition to making innovative contributions to his field in composition, Casale was a well-known conductor. Casale passed away in Caracas in 1981.