Editor’s Choice, Gramophone November 2007
Classic FM Disc of the Week

'Spooky, no sooner had I dug out Thea King's affectionate 1980 Hyperion recording of the Stanford Sonata following the sad announcement of her death in June than Robert Plane's new version dropped on the doormat. The work is one of Stanford's strongest achievements from his later years, boasting at its heart a powerful Adagio (''caoine – an Irish lament) which finds Plane even more responsive to the music's raw emotion and beaming fantasy than either King or Emma Johnson. Ravishing in tone and exploiting an excitingly wide dynamic range, Plane forges a commandingly articulate alliance with pianist Benjamin Frith. Indeed, it's hard to imagine more sympathetic music-making – a statement which holds true for the Three Intermezzi (an exceedingly attractive trilogy dating from 1879) and the two substantial, utterly, disarming Fantasies for clarinet and string quartet…Naxos's absurdly modest asking-price is the icing on the cake!'
Gramophone November 2007

'Robert Plane is superb …Dashing performances for minimal wallet-damage – why are you waiting.' Editor's Choice, Gramophone November 2007

'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. He can do all this among chords recognisable from Stanford's church music.'
The Times August 2007

Recommended Recording - Building a Library, CD Review, BBC Radio 3
Winner, Classic CD Best Concerto Recording 2000
Gramophone, Editor's Choice'

'But it is one of the merits of this exceptional performance that Robert Plane’s mellifluous playing is so perfectly suited to the clarinet’s role as peacemaker, while the Northern Sinfonia strings add the necessary edge when it is required.'
Anthony Burton - 1001 Classical Recordings you must hear before you die

'..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.'
Building a Library, BBC Radio 3

'His virtuoso command and clear fresh tone are most impressive, with clean, crisp definition…The slow movement brings a glorious performance, rapt and expansive, with hushed playing lovingly expressive. An outstanding bargain version.'
Gramophone 2001

This is an absolutely delightful programme which will be especially welcome to all lovers of English music. The playing throughout is first-class, with Robert Plane proving an excellent soloist able to exploit both the elegiac and virtuosic aspects of the music with equal success.'
BBC Music Magazine ***** 1998

Final Shortlist Gramophone Awards (Chamber Music) 2006

'The performances are excellent, and Robert Plane is responsive to the shifting moods of the mature sonata...a programme to intrigue all Bax enthusiasts'
BBC Music Magazine

'Robert Plane's irreproachably alert and stylish account with Benjamin Frith leaves a delightlful impression. Plane's timbre could hardly be more alluring and he strikes up a tangible rapport with Frith. Enthusiasts can rest assured that these admirably agile and idiomatic performers give Bax's youthful inspiration every chance to shine; indeed, it's impossible to imagine a more convincing account of the Trio'
Gramophone

' ....the result is gorgeous, as here in the serene conclusion to the slow movement of the Clarinet Trio...exuding poise and elegance.'
CD Review BBC Radio 3

'....splendid performances.This richly rewarding release completes the Gould's admirable cycle on a high note. Full of lyrical outpouring, warm and varied tone, and perfect judgement of tempi, all these performances display an all too rare ability to combine in equal measure instrumental cohesion and expressive individuality. These are conversations, never debates...heart-warming and mind-nourishing celebrations of community-vividly characterised, very shrewdly built, while never sacrificing small-scale detail to large-scale structure, and grippingly communicative.'
Piano Magazine

'..an irresistible performance of the Strauss Duett-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon, teasing and graceful in its phrasing, taut of rhythm, and the recorded sound well-balanced and distributed.'
BBC Music Magazine 1995

'The Clarinet Sonata, Howells's last major chamber work was completed in 1946. The dedicatee was Frederick Thurston, and the wonderfully idiomatic 1980 recording by his wife and pupil Thea King has certainly stood the test of time. Robert Plane's poetic account is possibly finer still, with its entrancing poise and liquid tone. Plane shines too in the coquettish miniature A Near-Minuet and sublime Rhapsodic Quintet.'
Gramophone 2004

'With his bright, singing tone and rock-solid technique, clarinettist Robert Plane creates a formidable impression in the Weber Quintet; his is playing of great wit, virtuosity and imaginative flair. An account to savour.'
Hi-Fi News and Record Review 2000

"The loneliness one dare not sound": Emily Dickinson's frightened image could well serve as the motto for James MacMillan's Tuireadh (Gaelic for lament) where Robert Plane's gull-like clarinet swoops or hovers around the anguished Emperor String Quartet in remembrance of the ill-fated North Sea oil-rig Piper Alpha. Some have spoken of the work's "keening", its sighing and sobbing. But the overriding impression for me is of solitary witness: the scrub of bows on gut like wave-slapped wreckage, or a winged clarinet fighting off jagged string chords. Every now and again MacMillan cues an ethereal chorale. A moment of respite or the crooked finger of a summoning god?..... a remarkable programme that's beautifully played and superbly recorded.'
The Independent

'I can report that performances throughout are as superlatively disciplined as they are tirelessly eloquent; sound, balance and presentation are all beyond reproach. Another MacMillan/BIS triumph.'
Gramophone Aug 2002

'Lovely, richly communicative performances one and all (soloist Robert Plane creates a dashingly eloquent impression in the Clarinet Quintet), and ideal late-night listening.'
Andrew Aschenbach amazon.co.uk

'...skilful, idiomatic performances..Altogether a must for chocaholics.'
Gramophone

'Mobius..deliver the goods with energy, grace and lyrical feeling'
BBC Music Magazine *****

'ASV's medium-priced Quicksilva series includes a number of brand new recordings of chamber music, giving an invaluable outlet for the young British chamber musicians the company tends to enlist. This is one of the finest…It opens with Marchenerzahlungen, op.132. Such is the richness of the viola tone at the lower end of the register at the lower end of the register at the opening of this work that for a moment I thought Philip Dukes was playing a cello. Robert Plane's clarinet playing is equally ripe, a natural, expressive, liquid sound, and with Sophia Rahman's responsive piano playing completing the alchemy, the trio give deeply felt readings of this intimate work.'
Sunday Times 1998

'..ithe Prelude, Allegro and Pastorale for viola and clarinet, with Robert Plane on fine form.'
The Strad, May 2007

'Clarinettist Robert Plane deftly partners Dukes in the Prelude, Allegro and Pastorale.'
International Record Review, February 2007