You guessed it Frogman, I'm a clarinetist. I concur with all the above recommendations. Until yesterday, I would have picked Leister for soul and Marcellus for a perfect technical performance. Add Sabine Meyer in for good measure. Now, my favorite in essentially all categories is Reginald Kell with the LSO in 1940. Most musically alive performance I've heard, by far. He really plays it like a piece of classical era music, rather than with the ridiculously romantic style that most clarinetist imbue the piece with it because they're scared of it. Kell was the defining member of the British school of clarinet, but his recordings are not widely available.
We listened to a few Edison cylinders too. Amazing.
We listened to a few Edison cylinders too. Amazing.