Legendary jazz duo Sir Richard Rodney Bennett and Claire Martin will be giving the Sheldonian Theatre a slightly different feel next Friday, as they present a relaxed, cabaret-style evening of jazz songs, drawn from a typically eclectic repertoire.

The show, Witchcraft, premiered at the Pizza on the Park, Knightsbridge, on February 10, comes to Oxford as part of a 15-date tour of the UK and the United States. The title comes from a song by the Broadway jazz composer Cy Coleman, whose music forms the lynchpin of the show.

“It’s a tribute to Cy Coleman,” explains Claire. “So there are lots of Cy Coleman songs, things from shows that were written in the 90s, things from the 40s, and other standard songs by the likes of Harold Arlen and Cole Porter. It’s a real mixed bag, but mostly concentrating on Cy Coleman.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the set won’t include much from the duo’s highly-acclaimed CD, When Lights are Low, which was released in 2005 and contained a mix of jazz standards and modern classics from artists such as Joni Mitchell and Elvis Costello.

“We probably won’t do any of those songs, except perhaps one or two, but we have a good turnover of material,” Claire says. “They were different things that we were in love with at that moment. But we’re very proud of the CD, and it did very well. We’ll probably be selling them in Oxford!”

Whatever the repertoire, it’s clear that this will be a sparkling evening from two highly-lauded musicians. Claire has been hailed as one of the greatest female jazz singers of her generation, while Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, who was knighted in 1998 for services to music, is an internationally-acclaimed composer of classical music and film scores, as well as being in demand as a vocalist and accompanist around the word.

The pair have been performing together since 2000, and theirs has proved to be an explosive combination. The partnership came about by chance, as Claire explains.

“I was often going to Richard’s gigs because we were friends before we worked together, and usually on those occasions he would get me up to sing if he saw me in the room. He’d be doing a gig with another singer — at the time I think it was Mary Cleere Haran, and before that it was Marion Montgomery, who he had a collaboration with for years — and I didn’t think I would ever be that singer.

“But I got a chance because he stopped working with Marion. This sounds corny, but organically it made sense that we’d end up doing something together. Eight years ago we decided that, yes, we’d try and make a few sets of music together, and it’s been very easy.”

The Pizza on the Park was the venue for their first gig, so launching this year’s tour there has brought them back to their roots.

“It’s really special, because that’s where we started out, and it’s a beautiful room with a real club feel to it. We’re there for five days, including Valentine’s Day, so we’re hoping we’ll get a good crowd.

“It’s interesting, because Richard’s got a fan base that now only knows him from singing and playing the piano but also from the classical music world, and my world’s very jazzy, so between the two of us we’ve got a nice merge of styles and followers.”

Claire is more used to performing with a backing band, so how does it feel to perform with just a piano accompaniment?

“It’s great. It’s especially great with Richard, because he plays like no one else. He makes the piano sing, and he knows beautiful chord changes, he’s got lovely harmony ideas and it really exposes the song, it really exposes you as a singer.

“It’s just stripped down, and you can really hear great songs if they can stand the test of just being sung with a piano. It’s intimate, and when we play at Pizza on the Park it suits the room. It just makes it more about the song, and less about the players improvising.

“What’s great about working with Richard is that he’s got such a font of knowledge of all sorts of different songs. He’s always got new ideas for songs I’ve never heard.”

For both Claire and Richard, next week’s concert will mark a return to Oxford, but it will be Claire’s first appearance at the Sheldonian.

How does she feel about turning what is normally a classical music venue into a jazz cabaret for the evening?

“I don’t think anything should be marginalised. I think jazz will work as well as anything else in there. Ultimately, it’s a music evening. I’ve got some friends coming and they say it’s a lovely space, so it should be interesting!”

lClaire Martin and Richard Rodney Bennett will be at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, on Friday, February 20. Box office: 0870 7500659 or visit musicatoxford.com