The reaction to our La Bohemè has been quite overwhelming, and it has been exciting to see the different aspects of the project reviewers have picke up on. We have also been very surprised and excited by the fact that several major magazines & papers have chosen to engage. Here are a few highlights:
The Sunday Times ★★★★★
Purists, brace yourselves. Yes, the list of personnel written out above comprises just the two players. This audacious enterprise by the Dutch violinist van Bellen and the Norwegian pianist Halvorsen is possibly the first to tackle the transcribing of an entire opera. And here's the thing: it takes absolutely nothing away from Puccini's miraculous score. On the contrary, through musicianship that at times takes the breath away, the pair's reworking acheves an astonishing (and deeply affecting) fullness and richness. Never do you feel a lack of narrative heft or emotional engagement. Indeed, in Che gelida manina. Quando me'n vo' and Donde lieta usci, violin and piano "sing" so lyrically that Rodolfo, Musetta and Mimi are right there before you.
BBC Music Magazine, Alexandra Wilson (Chamber Music Choice of the month) ★★★★★
….. The bohemians’ high jinks – played by van Bellen and Halvorsen with tremendous bravura – are distilled brilliantly, whilst at the end of Act II the arrangement mind-bogglingly creates the effect of an entire marching band. Even more astonishingly, each character’s ‘voice’ is given a distinctive tone colour. Mimì is fragile, Rodolfo is assertive, though both are played by the violin, and by some wizardry these distinctions are apparent even when the two ‘sing’ together in duet. Such is the emotional commitment of the two musicians, the sense of immediacy in the recording, and the lush, dynamic playing inspired by performers from Puccini’s own era such as Fritz Kreisler and Leopold Godowsky, that by the time we reach the end it is quite possible to forget that we have not been listening to ‘the real thing’. Bravi, van Bellen and Halvorsen, for this ravishing achievement.
deVolkskrant (40 best albums of the year, no. 23)
It wasn't really an opera year. maybe it had something to do with the lockdowns: after all, many opera albums are live recordings. But there was a very original opera project without vocals. Violinist Mathieu van Bellen and Mathias Halvorsen made a virtuoso arrangement of Puccini's La Boheme - the entire opera, yes, for piano and violin. Vocal playing, all the characters retained their own character: insanely successful.
Klassekampen, Magnus Andersson
…… In short: They have created meaningful chamber music for piano and violin of the operatic form. Not least the transport sections are interesting – all the sections that do not have the most famous melodies, but rather serve to carry the dialogue and the text on. This is where Puccini went the furthest towards letting the orchestration become the narrative element. In these parts, van Bellen and Halvorsen have let loose through an imaginative use of their instruments, which is central to the drama's carrying over the release's 90 minutes. Several other critics have compared the transcription to the music of a silent film, but I think that this is a work that stands on its own two feet. We don't need to see anything else for ourselves but to listen to the richly varied movement. The two musicians also deliver on such a high musical level that this has ended up as a drama that deserves its very own genre designation. (translated from Norwegian)