“… Her [Pike] affinity with Polish expressionistic melancholy is evidenced by deep, personal playing at low registers and a striking harbouring of the sort of ecstatic rapture Szymanowski (in particular) brings to high ones. That composer makes up the bulk of the menu here and Pike’s engagement with his scented world is made more of rapt than neurotic intensity, with touches of fragility, idiosyncratic little glissandos and some exceptional instances of focus… In the works that follow by Moszkowski, Karlowicz and Wieniawski the effects are more of the coloratura variety, and while there’s a different slant on that melancholy from Karlowicz – Pike brings an almost vocal delivery to the central section of his Impromptu … But in none of those technical challenges does Pike sound anything other than lost in the music – in a good way – and Chandos’s involving sound helps.”

Recommended

“…the overriding impression from this disc is of someone who not only plays the music, but sincerely understands it too. And in Petr Limonov she [Pike] seems to have found the ideal duo partner; he follows her every contour and nuance…”

“… Jennifer Pike approaches the Mythes with a tone of glistening, succulent sweetness, coupled to generous vibrato, swooping, sensuous phrasing and intense, often dazzling radiance. Her intonation, even in harmonics and double-stops, is superbly assured …”

Chamber Choice

Performance *****      Recording *****

“Jennifer Pike’s exceptional sensitivity to tonal inflection and temporal flexibility works wonders in Symanowski’s Mythes … No less bewitching is the Op. 28 Nocturne and Tarantella, in which Pike intoxicates the senses … Pike proves no less winning in Moszkowski;s enchanting Guitarre and smoulders seductively in Wieniawski’s Op. 17 Légende. In his famous Op. 4 Polonaise she relishes the music’s dancing  contours in a way that more headlong accounts tend to skate over. Petr Limonov partners her devotedly with great skill and sensitivity, captured in exemplary sound…”