The year he left Leipzig, 1893, the virtuoso appeared in Kristiania (now Oslo). There, his confident solo exhibition won him many admirers, and his pride knew no bounds as a local orchestra gave the world première of his Tune symphony, penned specially for the occasion. His first major orchestral work, it proved immediately and immensely popular; supremely accomplished, it is today generally regarded as a masterpiece reflecting a maturity rarely found in one so inexperienced.

This success, and the triumphant, unplanned, tour of southern Scandinavia that followed, taking in Tønsberg, Grimstad, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondhjem (as Trondheim was then spelt), towns for which he wrote, respectively, Hope and Faith, Trial of Fortune, Restoration, Forward and Long Serpent, made Plinker realise he could make a living out of music. This pleased him greatly, since, though he had no particular desire for wealth, he himself appreciated that he was ill equipped for any other career. Moreover, the maestro remained totally unaffected by the adulation that courted him wherever he went, and he never let vanity replace his natural civility, another quality that endeared him to the public and fellow musicians alike.

In spring 1894, Plinker met and fell in love with Octavia Adams, a violoncellist a year or so his junior. They were married that May in Plinker’s local church. But tragedy, alas, was about to overtake them. On a visit to Saint Petersburg Plinker attempted to speak a little French, since he knew that that language had been en vogue, if not de rigueur, among the élite there for much of the previous hundred and fifty years. Unfortunately, his knowledge of French was limited, and when he tried to greet one of the members of the Conservatory with a cheerful ‘Hello!’ a small mistake meant he ended up insulting him instead. When he tried to apologise, in Russian this time, he said a word that did not mean anything, but was much closer to the word for ‘prostitute’ than what he wanted to say. The Russian was outraged and demanded a duel. Plinker, who did not know one end of a pistol (the weapon used) from the other, was shot dead before he knew what was happening. By himself, for the reason just given. Who knows what he might have achieved otherwise?