“

Mighty, impassioned climaxes in the first two movements as well as some wonderfully supple, nuanced playing in the second, and a finale mixing fire and reverie with a powerful sense of musical purpose.

The Strad

Elgar Sonata
31 October 2009

“

Jennifer Pike has one principal advantage over many brilliant child musicians…she is extremely musical. No peacock display, no redundant pyrotechnics or acrobatics; good clean playing, well articulated, intelligently phrased, and warmed by a strong, confident sound marked her lucid playing of the concerto.

Michael Tumelty, The Herald

Mozart Violin Concerto No 4, London Mozart Players
3 June 2003

“

Perfection from Pike. The high spot of the evening was Jennifer Pike’s performance of the Bruch violin concerto. She played it as if it had been composed yesterday, fiery, powerful playing in the prelude and a sense of deepening intensity in the adagio, followed by a firework finale. Her tone was matchless and her technique magnificent: but the exciting thing was the individual musical mind she brought to it. With Boyd’s help [the conductor], she made a hackneyed piece sound fresh – and for a 14-year-old, that points to an extraordinary future.

Robert Beale, Manchester Evening News

Manchester Camerata
16 February 2004

“

There could be no better way to open a three-concert day devoted to the violin than a solo from Britain’s foremost young fiddler: the 15-year-old Jennifer Pike stepped on to the platform and delivered the prelude (and gavotte en rondeau) from Bach’s Third Partita with perfect poise and assurance, her instrument sounding clear and strong.

The Independent

2 August 2005

“

It’s encouraging, in these days when emerging artists can so easily find themselves pushed and over-hyped into an early burnout, to find violinist Jennifer Pike taking the slow and careful route to stardom. Only now, a week after her 16th birthday, has she felt ready to face the toughest and most discriminating audience of all, that of London’s Wigmore Hall. But it was worth the wait. Pike’s growing maturity as an artist was immediately apparent.

Matthew Rye, Daily Telegraph

Wigmore Hall
19 November 2005