Jennifer Pike has won the Limelight Chamber Recording of the Year 2020 for her insightful pairing of violin sonatas by Elgar and Vaughan Williams on Chandos. Martin Roscoe is the pianist in a pair of radiant and searching interpretations with the original violin and piano version of The Lark Ascending thrown in for good measure. Clive Paget caught up with the violinist at home in London to find out what makes these two works sit so well together, the challenges of each, and why we don’t hear either of them nearly often enough.

Jennifer Pike. All photos © Arno

Congratulations on winning the Limelight Chamber Recording of the Year.

Thank you! I’m really honoured and delighted. I was really happy when I heard the news. In fact, I’m speechless, and so glad that people enjoyed it there.

There are obvious parallels between these two sonatas, but what was your particular reason for putting them together?

Aside from the British thing, musically I think the two composers make sense together. I love Elgar’s music and have done for such a long...