Anna Turner oboe
Aaron Le Maistre piano

Poulenc Sonata for Oboe and Piano
Debussy Five Pieces
Dutilleux Sonata for Oboe and Piano
Bozza Fantaisie Pastorale

We start the New Year of Live at Lunch performances with a welcome return to musicians from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, this time featuring an instrument we haven’t heard as a soloist at Live at Lunch since 2012, the oboe.

Oboe player Anna is in her third year at RNCM and was previously a member of the National Children’s Orchestra and the National Youth Music Theatre. Aaron is a pianist and viola player from Cheltenham in his fourth year at RNCM, and as a violist was a member of The National Youth Orchestra and the CBSO Youth Orchestra.

Their programme features music by French composers written for the Oboe, as well as a selection of Debussy’s piano pieces arranged by the great American Oboist Humbert Lucarelli. They begin with Francis Poulenc’s last work, described as a “paradoxical mix of the elegiac, the suave and the clever”. Henri Dutilleux’s sonata follows Debussy’s impressionist style but with his own distinct sound, rich textures and playful interplay with the piano. They end with a brilliant technical showpiece by the prolific composer, Eugene Bozza.

This will also be a unique opportunity to hear an instrument in RNCM’s Endangered Instruments Appeal which aims to target the declining number of musicians choosing these instruments at a young age and support them on their musical journeys.