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FLAUSINO VALE
"THE BRAZILIAN PAGANINI"
in the words of Heitor Villa-Lobos
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Page created by José Maurício Guimarães, musician, violin player in the "Orquestra Sinfônica de Minas Gerais." |
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Dr. Huascar Terra do Vale , son of Flausino Vale, collaborates in this page. |
Though he was recognized as an extraordinary virtuoso of the violin, Flausino Vale´s contemporaries considered his compositions as second rate because they were not similar to the works of the great European masters. The fact that all the great masters of the past have looked for inspiration in the popular soul escaped them completely. However, in the 40’s, one of his compositions, "Ao Pé da Fogueira" (By the Bonfire) reached the hands of the great violinist Jascha Heifetz. He fell in love with the musical piece and made an arrangement of it (piano accompaniment), which he played at the Carnegie Hall. Later on, he recorded this arrangement.
Following suit other great violinists and violists also fell in love with Vale's composition and played it repeated times in concert theaters, especially in the Carnegie Hall. Among them Zino Francescatti, William Primrose, Isaac Stern, Isaac Pearlman, Henrik Szering, and others. "Ao Pé da Fogueira" was also recorded by Zino Francescatti and William Primrose.
However, " Ao Pé da Fogueira" was just one of many compositions by Flausino Vale, all of them displaying the same talent and creativity. He extolled the violin as a self sufficient instrument and to prove it he composed
26 Preludes for Solo Violin, including " Ao Pé da Fogueira ". Among them there are other masterpieces that would be deeply enjoyed by all lovers of the violin.Click here and listen to
"Ao Pé da Fogueira" quartet arrangement by J.M.Guimarães
The Batuque, one of the few he recorded, is a display of transcendental violin technique, enriched with an explosion of pizzicatti and the use of the violin as a drum-like instrument. Few violinists can play the Batuque with the vigor and enthusiasm with which Flausino Vale recorded it.
Flausino Vale and Heitor Villa-Lobos 
Flausino Vale
Besides the 26 preludes, Flausino Vale composed a score of other varied compositions, some of them extraordinarily beautiful and inspirated, besides some remarkable arrangements, such as the "Adagio from Beethoven’s Clair de Lune Sonata" with violin accompaniment; the beautiful Bach’s "Chacone" for two violins; "Variations on the Second Movement of Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata"; Variations on Handel’s "See Here the Conqu’ring Hero Comes", and many others.
Flausino Vale was born in 1894 in the city of Barbacena but lived most of his life in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. His violin teacher, Augusto Campos, studied with Joaquim Macedo, disciple of Bériot and Vieuxtemps, two of the greatest masters of the belgian school of violin. Flausino Vale used to play brilliantly these famous master´s compositions. He presented himself many times in theaters in his home town, when he was applauded enthusiastically. He died in 1954, only 60 years old, of a heart stroke.
The Polish Violinist Jerzy Milewsky, naturalized Brazilian, recorded a beautiful CD with Vale's preludes.
Huascar Terra do Vale