In Pike…we have a musician of proven attainment whose discs have also won acclaim and accompanied as she is by Martin Roscoe, who has also often accompanied [Tasmin] Little, we have a strong duo.
Pike scores strongly in driving to the peaks of phrases and in drawing the expressive threads together…she binds the quixotic elements very adeptly, those quick pizzicati ringing out, the music moving with phrasal directness, its Schumannesque inheritance never overplayed. In the finale she plays the reminiscence section with speed and tonal purity, its passion hardly sublimated when played this way – too slow and it sags – and leading to a triumphant ending.
This latest disc is very fine and enlightening on its own terms’