Rodion Mikhaylovich Azarkhin also spelt Rodion Azarkin and Radion Azarkin, (March 22, 1931, Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

, USSR – March 26, 2007, Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Russia) was a Russian musician. He started to practise the double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 in 1945 at the ten year music school attached to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory

Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...

 in the class of S. Buyanovsky and P. Weinblat. Later he was a pupil of RSFSR Honoured Artist M.M. Kurbatov at the Leningrad Conservatory from which he graduated with honours in 1954. He perfected his skill as a postgraduate student at the Moscow Conservatory

Moscow Conservatory

The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...

 under cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky

Sviatoslav Knushevitsky

Sviatoslav Nikolayevich Knushevitsky was a Russian classical cellist. He was particularly noted for his partnership with the violinist David Oistrakh and the pianist Lev Oborin in a renowned piano trio from 1940 until his death...

.

Azarkhin worked with many musical ensembles, including the Moscow Chamber Orchestra under Rudolf Barshai

Rudolf Barshai

Rudolf Borisovich Barshai was a Soviet/Russian conductor and violist.Barshai was born in Stanitsa Lobinskaya, Krasnodar Krai, and studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Tseitlin and Vadim Borisovsky. He performed as a soloist as well as together with Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, and...

, Leningrad Radio Variety Orchestra, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Leningrad Academic Maliy Opera Theatre Orchestra, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation

State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation

The State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation is a Russian orchestra based in Moscow...

, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra

Izmir State Symphony Orchestra

İzmir State Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra located in İzmir.Its principal conductor is Rengim Gökmen....

 and as a soloist with the Turkish conductor Ender Sakpinar. He also participated as a soloist in the programme of The Royal Conservatory of Music concert called Music in Exile.

Azarkhin's repertoire of more than 200 works is unique. It features numerous arrangements of his own and transcriptions of instrumental pieces, as well as rarely-performed original compositions for double bass. These include: concertos by Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

, Boccherini, Dittersdorf

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

----August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist.-1739-1764:...

, Dvořák

Antonín Dvorák

Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...

, Haendel, Haydn, Saint-Saëns, Schumann

Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....

, Tubin

Eduard Tubin

-Life:Tubin was born in Torila, Governorate of Livonia, Estonia. Both his parents were music lovers, and his father played trumpet and trombone in the village band. His first taste of music came at school where he learned flute and balalaika. Later, his father swapped a cow for a piano, and the...

; "Variations on a Rococo theme" by Tchaikovsky, Partita No.2 by Bach (with Chaconne); and sonatas by Beethoven ("Kreutzer-Sonate"), Boccherini, Brahms, Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

, Grieg, Hindemith, Kabalevsky, Rachmaninov, Schubert, and "Moses" by Paganini, and "Introduction and rondo-capriccio" by Saint-Saëns.

Performance of these works, use of new performing techniques, and new timbre colours allowed Azarkhin to extend considerably the conventional idea about the artistic potential of the double bass as a solo instrument.

Sources

• Российский гуманитарный энциклопедический словарь. Entry on Rodion Azarkhin. «Гуманитарный издательский центр ВЛАДОС», 2002.