The three works on this program depict gods and heroes. Beethoven’s “Emperor” is the most imperious and virtuosic of his five piano concertos, though it also has one of his most hymn-like slow movements. Many regard it as a forerunner of the Romantic concerto, citing the surge of sound and color as well as the piano’s tendency to heroically compete with the orchestra rather than merely blend with it. In Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, the hero is the composer himself in a retrospective of his past battles, loves, and achievements. A spectacular battle sequence displays the full brilliance of a modern symphony orchestra and serves as a progenitor of numerous war scenes in movie scores. The love scene—a workout for the concertmaster—is a mini–violin concerto, and the ending rivals the opening of Also sprach Zarathustra for power and grandeur. The opening work, a new piece by Guillaume Connesson, is by contrast a gentle nocturne that depicts Eirene, the Greek goddess of peace, displaying the orchestra’s capacity for delicacy and hushed contemplation.