Iran and Turkey
Rashid often performed in the Near East. In Iran, he was accompanied by the pianist Chingiz Sadikhov and tar player Ahsan Dadashov. They were so popular that their two-week tour in Iran stretched into two months. His first concert in Turkey took place in 1961 with the talented violin player Azad Aliyev. The concerts in Ankara and Istanbul were extremely successful as well.
As Azad Sharifov reports: I was lucky enough to see one of his concerts in Ankara in 1966. At that time, I was a correspondent for the newspaper "Izvestiya." It was his tenth concert on that tour. The concert hall was sold out, but I decided to try to go anyway. Fortunately, Rashid's manager saw me and motioned for me to follow him backstage. There I found Rashid pacing the floor. The manager cautioned me, "He's getting ready to go on stagebetter not disturb him right now." I stood silently as if frozen.
Suddenly, Rashid looked up, recognized me and came and hugged me. "Where have you been for so long?" he asked. "If you only knew how much I miss Baku and my daughter. Thank God, I'll be flying back tomorrow. So good of you to come. After the concert, let's have dinner together." I remember that the Turkish audience that night knew all of Rashid's repertoire by heart and sang along with him.
Read more about this topic: Rashid Behbudov
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