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Pike’s soaring Lark is a masterclass in expressive free flight…Jennifer Pike opens The Lark Ascending with delicacy and grace, her vibrato contained and expressive. As she moves into the first melody, that vibrato occasionally stops altogether, leaving pure, expressive notes within the exquisite soundscape. This whole first section is a masterclass in how to structure an extended musical paragraph. The young players of the Chamber Orchestra of New York then come into their own with some fine solo playing, particularly from the flute, as Pike pirouettes lissomly around them (the recording is clear and well balanced). Her playing is clean and fluent, each note perfectly focused and placed. Her double-stopped allargando phrases weaving down in 5ths (mostly) are magical. She has the gift of making time stand still, even as the music flows forwards. The final cadenza is sublime, as the Lark ascends to top B and disappears. This is the last work on the disc, as it should be: no one would want to hear anything else after that.

Tim Homfray, March 2017

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I’m tempted to have an open-hearted rave-up about the latest disc (Volume Four) in Chandos’ Mendelssohn in Birmingham series… There is no concerto more-loved than Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. It is one of the most-familiar of early Romantic Violin Concertos, multiply-recorded and staple fare in the repertoire. It is so familiar it has become almost hackneyed. Edward Gardner and Jennifer Pike have given it a re-think and complete re-fit… I felt I was hearing it for the first time. Pike’s playing sings the concerto: it is breathtakingly beautiful, and the sophistication of orchestral thinking and playing is out of this world.

Michael Tumelty, March 2016

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Superb new recording….Pike’s lyrical performance clearly demonstrates that she has been performing this piece for many years. Her phrasing shows she knows this work inside out and has discovered all of its ethereal subtlety and beauty.

December 2015

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Jennifer Pike’s interpretation is dramatic, passionate and always nuanced….This performance is certain to become one of the great standard recordings.

John France, December 2015

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Jennifer Pike allies the luminous beauty of her tone to her innate musicality and mercurial technique to produce an exceptionally lyrical interpretation of the evergreen Violin Concerto in E minor.

Stephen Pritchard, December 2015