The Britten Oboe Quartet here makes its recording debut with a programme of its core repertory. It naturally includes the great Mozart Quartet, K370, and Britten’s own Phantasy, op.2, but also two pieces that have a special resonance for the distinguished oboist Nicholas Daniel, because they were commissioned and premiered by Janet Craxton (1929-81), his ‘beloved teacher’ and inspiration, and her London Oboe Quartet. Thus Oliver Knussen’s Cantata (1977) and the delightful Cor Anglais Quartet of Jean Françaix add further variety to a fascinating anthology that also features Nicholas Daniel’s own completion of Mozart’s elegiac fragment K580a.

“He is arguably Britain’s most virtuosic and adventurous instrumentalist and as mesmerising a talent now, at 53, as he was when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition 35 years ago... The oboe writing [in the Macmillan] is insanely demanding throughout; Daniel is stunning.” - The Times, 11 April 2015 ***** (HMU807573 Vaughan Williams & James Macmillan: Oboe Concertos)

“With its sure-footed gestural pacing, Thea Musgrave’s elegantly taut music is thoroughly absorbing and Nicholas
Daniel’s seemingly effortless musicality is always a pleasure to encounter.” - BBC Music Magazine, August 2013 ***** (HMU907568 Thea Musgrave: Chamber works for oboe)