Jack Brymer

Widely considered the dean of British clarinetists up to his death in 2003, Jack Brymer once said that "the ability to play the clarinet is the ability to overcome the imperfections of the instrument," adding that "there's no such thing as a perfect clarinet, never was and never will be." Brymer was working as a schoolteacher and had just given his debut recital on BBC Radio when his friend Dennis Brain, the prominent horn player, suggested that he audition for the empty first clarinet chair in Britain's new Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947. He was picked by conductor Thom...