One of Britain's best-known musicians and one of the world's finest oboists, Nicholas Daniel OBE is renowned for his extraordinary virtuosity, deep musical insight, and charismatic stage presence and has enjoyed an illustrious international career. Nicholas Daniel notes: How very lucky it is for us oboists that Benjamin Britten had a special place in his heart for the oboe and the cor anglais. That love runs like a special thread through his output, and the music he wrote for those instruments commands respect alongside his repertoire for any other. Julius Drake and I were fortunate enough to play all this music to Britten's life partner, Peter Pears, at the home he and Britten had shared, the Red House, on Britten's beautiful piano. I asked Peter once why Britten loved the oboe and he said that 'he considered it the most expressive of instruments'. He also mentioned Bach and the Passions and Cantatas as an influence on Britten, works that contain arguably the greatest body of repertoire for our instrument. It is notable that three great women oboists were an inspiration for the composer: Sylvia Spencer (Temporal Variations and Insect Pieces), Joy Boughton (Metamorphoses), and my teacher Janet Craxton.