Thursday's all-American trio of composer, pianist and conductor was far from a Florida Philharmonic Orchestra "first." But it was the South Florida premiere of Millennium Fantasy (2000), a piano concerto by Ellen Taafe Zwilich, a Miami native and Pulitzer Prize winner, that the orchestra commissioned.

Guest pianist Jeffrey Biegel has championed the work steadily for the past 19 months, from its world premiere with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to the regional premieres by 26 other commissioning orchestras nationwide. At the Kravis Center, his colleague was guest conductor Michael Christie for not only the Zwilich, but also the familiar Franck concerto Symphonic Variations. The concert opened and closed with Dvorak: Carnival Overture and Symphony No. 6, Op. 60.

Zwilich typically build large-scale works out of short, recognizable melodies. For the 20-minute concerto, she borrowed from the Celtic folk song Come all Ye Fair and Tender Maidens (A paternal twin to I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger). it by bit, over the concerto's's two movements, she adds more fragments of the melody until it's nearly complete.

Aptly named, the fantasy is a loose-knit collection of jazzy, bluesy musings that cycle continuously. Also a la Zwilich, it has a contemporary bark, but no harsh bite. The flavor boils down to Ken Burns' Civil War folksiness meets Gershwin's Catfish Row meets Prokofiev piano sonata. It's a good vehicle for Biegel, but it's doubtful that other pianists will jump to pick it up.

Biegel is well equipped for clarity in the fantasy's percussive outbursts as well as more restrained elements — harp-like glissando and poignant reflections on the melancholy love song.