Who says so? None other than the First Knight of the Flute himself who is aware that the actor hopes to be listening to one of his tracks when the moment for her to give birth arrives.

"If Nicole really wants to listen to a piece of mine at the vital moment then I would recommend a track of The Vocalise of Rachmaninov," he says. "I recorded this work from 1912 a while ago and it really is relaxing."

Russian-born Rachmaninov who died in 1943 at 70 composed his Vocalise originally for soprano and piano and it has been described as one of the most beautiful melodies ever written, dedicated to the soprano Antonina Nezhdanova who was a close friend.

Down the years cellists, flautists, violinists, choirs and orchestras have all made special arrangements of this Vocalise — defined as a song without words.

The version by Galway and the National Symphony Orchestra of London is one of the most successful. But Sir James, who is preparing at home in Switzerland for his next recital, warns: "Music is all down to individual taste. One pregnant mother's delight obviously might not please some other female about to deliver."

The musician, father of two grown up sons and two daughters himself with his first two wives, adds: "I'm flattered at Nicole's choice especially as I'm one of her admirers. She is a beautiful lady and I have seen most of her movies. Far and Away with her ex Tom Cruise was absorbing and I really got hung up on Dead Calm in which she starred with Sam Neill who was actually raised in Northern Ireland."

Sir James who will be playing in King's Lynn on Sunday week with his flautist wife Jeannie, a New Yorker to whom he has been married for 24 years, knows that sometimes there are hiccups with musical choices in hospital.

"I was badly injured in a car crash at a place called Boswil in Switzerland in 1977," he recalls.

"When I was lying in hospital afterwards waiting for an operation they were playing a recording of the Halle Orchestra conducted by James Loughran.

"Did it calm me down? Well, I didn't get time to find out. The doc had given me a shot and I went to sleep before the Halle had played five bars.

"Never got the name of the piece either. This is what can happen to people with their tunes in the ward."

Sir James says that Nicole Kidman's preference for his music is typical of the letters he gets from around the world thanking him for his genius on the flute.

"Women — and men — tell me my playing gives them great comfort and that gives me a lot of joy. However, Miss Kidman is the first pregnant lady I have heard asking for me to be played at this highly important moment in her life."