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Jennifer Pike (violin) Petr Limonov (piano). Photo courtesy Wigmore Hall
With almost 20 years of performing under her belt since winning the BBC Young Musician competition in 2002, Jennifer Pike has little to prove and plenty to show. Mostly relatively undemonstrative in physical gesture, she keeps her focus on the sound, not the look.
And it’s a sound that was rich and vibrant from the start, in Bacewicz’s unaccompanied Polish Caprice, in which Pike’s full-toned opening lament gave way to a fast and flashy folk tune.
Mozart’s two-movement Violin Sonata in E minor K304, was the only item not to reflect the violinist’s Polish roots on her mother’s side. Her judicious use of non-vibrato set a mysterious tone in the first movement. The Minuet shone with poise and clarity, its major-key Trio emerging with both brightness and warmth.