LIVING WOMEN, DEAD MEN (DE)COMPOSING
The Berkeley Symphony was focusing on women’s music, as both living composers and the guest conductor were from the distaff side. Little wonder: The two dead male composers, a cheery lot, were immersed on themes of death looking back on two of the grand showmen of early music, Paganini and Liszt. Not to be outdone, piano soloist Conrad Tao put on a show of his own in two works Dec. 7, as if intent on bringing back pianist-composer Liszt from…