Editing Dennis Brain (section)

===Later years===
By 1945, Brain, at 24 years of age, was the most sought-after horn player in England.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Dennis Brain (1921–1957) – IHS Online|url = http://www.hornsociety.org/ihs-people/past-greats/28-people/past-greats/122-brain|website = Hornsociety.org|access-date = 2015-10-09|archive-date = 2019-02-02|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190202153731/https://www.hornsociety.org/ihs-people/past-greats/28-people/past-greats/122-brain|url-status = live}}</ref> His father injured himself in a fall, and retired from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, although he remained professor at the RAM until his death ten years later.<ref name=grove>Morley-Pegge, Reginald, and Niall O'Loughlin. [https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000003817 "Brain family"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 14 June 2021 {{subscription required}} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604042928/http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000003817 |date=4 June 2018 }}</ref> After the war, Legge and [[Thomas Beecham|Sir Thomas Beecham]] founded the [[Philharmonia Orchestra|Philharmonia]] and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras, respectively.<ref name=legge/> Brain was principal horn in both, playing for Beecham alongside the woodwind players dubbed "the Royal Family" –  [[Jack Brymer]] (clarinet), [[Gwydion Brooke]] (bassoon), [[Terence MacDonagh]] (oboe), and [[Gerald Jackson]] (flute).<ref>Melville-Mason, Graham. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gwydion-brooke-6148964.html "Gwydion Brooke – Bassoonist in Sir Thomas Beecham's 'Royal Family'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930012824/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gwydion-brooke-6148964.html |date=2015-09-30 }}, ''The Independent'', 5 April 2005</ref> Later, he found that he did not have enough time to fill both positions and resigned from the Royal Philharmonic.<ref name=odnb/>

Brain originally played a French instrument, a Raoux piston-valve horn, similar to that used by his father.<ref>Gamble and Lynch, p. 190</ref>  This type of instrument has a particularly fluid tone and a fine legato, but a less robust sound than the German-made instruments which were becoming common.  In 1951 he switched to an [[Gebr. Alexander|Alexander]] single B{{music|flat}} instrument. It had a custom lead pipe which was narrower than the usual, and offered a sound which, if not comparable to the Raoux, at least gave a nod in the direction of the lighter French instrument.<ref>Gamble and Lynch, pp. 189 and 195–198</ref>

Pursuing his interest in [[chamber music]], Brain formed a [[wind quintet]] with his brother in 1946.<ref name="odnb" /> He also established a trio with the pianist Wilfrid Parry and violinist [[Jean Pougnet]].<ref>Gamble and Lynch, pp. 219–220</ref> Briefly, Brain put together a chamber ensemble consisting of his friends so that he could conduct.<ref>Gamble and Lynch, p. 45</ref> From 1945 he played with [[Karl Haas (conductor)|Karl Haas]]'s London Baroque Ensemble, both on recordings and in concert.<ref>Gamble and Lynch, p. 18</ref> Showing his humorous style, Brain performed a [[Leopold Mozart]] horn concerto on a rubber hose pipe at a [[Gerard Hoffnung]] music festival in 1956, trimming the hose with garden shears to achieve the correct tuning.<ref>Gamble and Lynch, p. 232</ref>

In November 1953, under the direction of [[Herbert von Karajan]], and accompanied by the Philharmonia, Brain recorded the four Mozart Horn Concertos for Columbia.<ref name=naxos>Notes to Naxos Historical CD set 8.111070 {{oclc|299065894}}</ref>  In the same month, together with [[Sidney Sutcliffe]] (oboe), [[Bernard Walton]] (clarinet) and [[Cecil James]] (bassoon), he recorded Mozart's [[Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds]].<ref>Schwarzkopf, p. 271</ref> In July 1954, again conducted by Karajan, Brain played the organ part in a recording of the Easter hymn from [[Pietro Mascagni]]'s ''[[Cavalleria rusticana]]''.<ref name=g83>Gamble and Lynch, p. 83</ref> With Sutcliffe, Walton, James and the pianist [[Walter Gieseking]] he recorded Mozart's [[Quintet for Piano and Winds (Mozart)|Quintet for Piano and Winds]], K452, in April 1955.<ref name=naxos/> Of Brain's other recordings, Legge singled out his playing in the four [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] Symphonies conducted by [[Otto Klemperer]], Mozart's [[Divertimenti for ten winds (Mozart)#Divertimento in B-flat major, K 186/159b|B flat Divertimento]] with Karajan and [[Richard Strauss|Strauss's]] ''[[Der Rosenkavalier]]'', "the horn-player's opera ''par excellence''!"<ref name=legge/>
[[File:Dennis-brain-alex.jpg|thumb|right|Brain's [[Gebr. Alexander|Alexander]] [[French horn#Single horn|B{{music|flat}}/A model 90 horn]], damaged in the crash, restored by [[Paxman Musical Instruments|Paxman]] and now on display at the [[Royal Academy of Music]] ]]
[[File:dennisbraingrave.jpg|thumb|right|Brain's grave, [[Hampstead Cemetery]], London]]
Brain was a keen motorist. His brother called him "the finest driver I have ever ridden with". Barringer writes that Brain bought
{{blockindent|… a series of increasingly fast cars, a passion that he shared with the conductor Herbert von Karajan. A copy of the magazine ''Autocar'' was spotted on his music stand as he recorded the Mozart horn concertos, playing from memory. This enthusiasm led to tragedy.<ref name=odnb/>|}}
On 1 September 1957, at the age of 36, Brain was killed driving home to London after performing the [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky|Tchaikovsky]] [[Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)|Symphony No. 6, ''Pathetique'']] with the Philharmonia under [[Eugene Ormandy]] at the [[Edinburgh Festival]].<ref>Gamble and Lynch, p. 221</ref> He had driven his [[Triumph TR2]] sports car off the road and into a tree on the A1 road opposite the north gate of the [[Hatfield Aerodrome|De Havilland Aircraft factory]] at Hatfield.

Brain was interred at [[Hampstead Cemetery]] in London. His headstone is engraved with a passage from the "Declamation" section of [[Paul Hindemith|Hindemith's]] Horn Concerto:
<poem>
     My call transforms
     The hall to autumn-tinted groves
     What is into what
     Has been...<ref name=foreman>Foreman, p. 114</ref></poem>

One of Brain's favourite horns (by Alexander of Mainz: a single B-flat horn with an F extension as a tuning slide) was badly damaged in his fatal crash. It has since been restored by Paxman Brothers of London and is on public display in the York Gate Collections at the RAM.<ref>[https://collections.ram.ac.uk/IMU/#/details/ecatalogue/2411 "Horn by Gebrüder Alexander, c.1950. Owned and played by Dennis Brain"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519182223/https://collections.ram.ac.uk/IMU/#/details/ecatalogue/2411 |date=2021-05-19 }}, Royal Academy of Music. Retrieved 14 June 2021</ref>