Robert Plane
Clarinet
22/12/15
This document provides materials for both your early publicity and also the day of the
concert. Please use the full, complete biography in your printed concert programme whenever
possible.
Quotes:
‘Plane’s clarinet has an eloquent and expressive voice. He can be clownish, rude, barracking and
sneering; he can weep, simper and smarm; he can joke, cackle and cheer. He can also produce
whispered tone from nothing, bite the air with a chisel edge, roar low down like a didgeridoo or soar
with the pure white sound of a cathedral treble.’ The Times
“A highly accomplished, indeed commanding performance of Finzi’s gorgeous Clarinet Concerto from
Robert Plane. With his bright, singing tone and effortless technical mastery, Plane leaves a stylish
impression …” Gramophone
‘..but the performance of the Finzi Clarinet Concerto which, for me, gets right to the heart is the
excellent Robert Plane’s….sinuous and flexible.’ Recommended Recording, Building a Library,
BBC Radio 3
Introduction
The clarinettist, Robert Plane, has a thriving international career as a concerto soloist and chamber
player and his discs are regularly played on Radio 3 and Classic FM. Robert has close partnerships
with various leading chamber ensembles. His recording of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
with the Gould Piano Trio was hailed by the Gramophone as the ‘finest modern version’ of this
monumental work. He has also collaborated with the Maggini, Dante, Auer, Carducci, Cavaleri,
Brodsky, Skampa and Tippett Quartets. Robert has given concerts with the Mandelring Quartet in
Germany, the UK and on a West Coast USA tour and a series of recitals in Switzerland with the Swiss
Piano Trio. He has performed with pianist Sophia Rahman for music clubs and festivals throughout
the UK and on tour in South America, China, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
Short Biography (389 words)
Robert Plane won the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in London in 1992 and has since
enjoyed a career encompassing solo and chamber work, as well as holding the principal clarinet
positions of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and the BBC National
Orchestra of Wales.
He is a successful recording artist and is particularly highly regarded for his solo recordings for
Naxos. His account of Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto won Classic CD Magazine’s ‘Best Concerto Recording’
Award and was selected as BBC Radio 3’s recommended version in ‘Building a Library’, whilst his
recording of Bax Sonatas was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award. His recording of Messiaen’s
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‘Quartet for the End of Time’ with the Gould Trio was praised by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘best
modern account’ of this monumental work.
Robert has played concertos with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, City of
London Sinfonia, Dortmund Philharmonic, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, RTE National Symphony
Orchestra and the Scottish Ensemble in concert halls across Europe, from Madrid’s Auditorio
Nacional and the Zurich Tonhalle to London’s Barbican and the Royal Albert Hall. He toured China as
soloist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, including a
performance at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, broadcast live to a TV audience
of 6 million. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2011 in Simon Holt’s double concerto ‘Centauromachy’
and in 2013 made his US concerto debut with the Virginia Symphony. He has given premiere
performances of concertos by Piers Hellawell, Diana Burrell and Nicola LeFanu.
Robert’s chamber music collaborations have included quintets with a number of well-known string
quartets (Maggini, Auer, Brodsky, Mandelring, Vellinger, Tippett, Carducci, Finzi, Cavaleri and
Dante) as well as with the chamber ensemble of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the Ibis
Ensemble in Trinidad. He has collaborated with the pianist Sophia Rahman for over 20 years and
highlights of their concerts together include tours to South America, New Zealand and China.
Together with the Gould Piano Trio he directs the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival in
Northumberland.
Robert teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has given masterclasses around
the world, including at both the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music in London, the Central
Conservatory in Beijing and at the San Francisco Conservatory.
Full Biography (670 words)
Robert Plane won the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition in 1992. Since then his solo and
chamber career has taken him to prestigious venues across Europe and beyond, performing Mozart’s
Clarinet Concerto in Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Musica with the City of London Sinfonia, on tour
in the USA with the Virginia Symphony and throughout China with the BBC National Orchestra of
Wales, during which his performance at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts was
broadcast live to a TV audience of 10 million.
Robert has become particularly known for his performances and recordings of the magnificent
English repertoire for clarinet. Gramophone magazine has praised playing of ‘ravishing lyricism and
conviction by Robert Plane, who has now surely fully occupied the shoes of the late Thea King in his
championship of British clarinet music.’ His benchmark recording of Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto (BBC
Radio 3 Building a Library recommendation and part of the Naxos British Music Series which won a
Gramophone Award in 1999) is still a regular feature of the playlists of both Radio 3 and Classic FM
nearly twenty years after its initial release. He subsequently recorded discs of music by Bax (a further
Gramophone Award shortlisting), John Ireland, Howells, Alwyn, Holbrooke, Robin Milford and
Stanford, including Stanford’s Clarinet Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Robert made his solo debut at the BBC Proms in 2011 in Simon Holt’s double concerto
‘Centauromachy’. He gave the world premiere of Piers Hellawell’s ‘Agricolas’, with subsequent
performances and a CD recording for Delphian with the Ulster Orchestra and the RTE National
Symphony Orchestra. Other notable premieres include the clarinet concerto by Diana Burrell, with
performances with Royal Northern Sinfonia at the Huddersfield Contemporary Festival and at the
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Barbican, and Nicola LeFanu’s Concertino. He gave the UK premiere of Christian Jost’s ‘Heart of
Darkness’ before taking it the Dortmund Philharmonic during their season celebrating that
composer’s works. Other overseas engagements include Copland with the Malta Philharmonic in
Valletta and a gala performance of the Bruch Double Concerto for clarinet and viola with the
Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka as part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
2013.
Robert has formed close partnerships with a number of leading chamber ensembles. He has
performed and recorded with the Gould Piano Trio for over twenty years and their recording of
Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was hailed by Gramophone as the ‘finest modern version’ of
this monumental work. He also appears on the Gould Trio’s recorded cycle of the complete trios of
both Beethoven and Brahms. Together they direct the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival in
Northumberland. He has collaborated with the Maggini, Dante, Auer, Carducci, Cavalleri, Brodsky
and Tippett Quartets, and his performance of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet with the Skampa Quartet
was broadcast live on Radio 3 on the opening night of that station’s ‘Brahms Experience’. Robert has
given concerts with the Mandelring Quartet in Germany, the UK and on a West Coast USA tour and a
series of recitals in Switzerland with the Swiss Piano Trio. He has performed with pianist Sophia
Rahman since meeting as students at the Royal Academy of Music, for music clubs and festivals
throughout the UK and on tour in South America, China, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
Alongside his solo and chamber work Robert has held the position of principal clarinet with Royal
Northern Sinfonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of
Wales. He has played as a guest principal with the Royal Concertgebouw, the London Symphony
Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Robert teaches at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and gives an annual class at the Royal
Academy of Music in London. He has given masterclasses at the Royal College of Music, Trinty Laban,
Birmingham Conservatoire, Beijing Conservatoire and the San Francisco Conservatory.
Robert is married to the violinist Lucy Gould and lives in Cardiff with their three children. In his spare
time he enjoys distance running and is a regular marathon runner
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