continued to tour around Soviet Union, and did some recordings at "Melodia" studio, including Liszt's Transcendental etudes. That recording became one of the first soviet recordings done with the use of Stereo technology. From mid 1970s Mr. Berman was again allowed to tour abroad, which he did to high acclaim. In 1968 he married Valentina Sedova and in 1970 their son, Pavel, was born. Although he was known to international music aficionados who had heard the occasional recording on the Russian Melodiya record label, as well as those who visited the Soviet Union, he was not generally well known outside Russia before his 1975 American tour, organised by the impresario Jacques Leiser. His now legendary New York debut at the 92 Street Y, where he played Liszt's Transcendental Études, struck the music world like lightning. He became an overnight sensation. Before that, he had been generally restricted to the Soviet concert circuit, playing on old and decrepit pianos to audiences of varied degrees of interest. Invitations to tour outside the Soviet Union were ignored by the Soviet state concert agency, Gosconcert. He lived in a tiny two-room apartment in Moscow, with a grand piano occupying an entire room. But after his 1975 tour, he was immediately in great demand, with Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, and CBS vying to record him. He recorded the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with Herbert von Karajan, as well as broadcasting it on international television with Antal Doráti, to mark United Nations Day in 1976. His playing of Chopin is well documented, in both a concert film and a DGG recording of the polonaises from the 1970s. Most of his British appearances came in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In December 1976, he performed music by Sergei Prokofiev and Franz Liszt at the Royal Festival Hall. In 1980, at the height of his popularity, Berman again was barred from leaving Soviet Union. This time it was because a book by an American writer (censored in the USSR) was found in his luggage while he was passing custom in Moscow's airport. In August 1990 Berman left USSR for Norway, followed by final relocation to Italy, where he became a teacher. Four years later he became Italian citizen, and the following year he got invited to Musical School of Weimar, Germany, where he continued teaching until 2000. He often performed along with his son, violinist Pavel Berman. Berman