The penultimate week of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra concerts brought a breath of fresh air in this transitional, dysfunctional season. With a capable young conductor, a bright soloist and a revised program with a diverting mix of old and new, Tuesday's night's concert at the Broward Center gave us the most all-around satisfying Philharmonic performance of the season.

In a long and arduous program, the 27-year-old conductor Michael Christie elicited polished and impassioned playing from the Philharmonic. It was especially heartening (and rare) to hear the Philharmonic play a new and noteworthy piece such as the Millennium Fantasy by Ellen Taafe Zwilich with such conviction.

Commissioned by soloist Jeffrey Biegel and 27 orchestras with which Biegel is performing it, the local premiere of Millennium Fantasy shows why Zwilich, a Miami native, remains one of our most accomplished and consistently interesting composers.

Cast in two movements running about 20 minutes, the work is based on a folk theme the composer's grandmother would sing to her as a child. Zwilich expands and deconstructs the tune in an artful and ear-catching way, yet the theme is always apparent in its various guises.

The solo part begins with Prokofiev-like broken chords and syncopated piano writing, mercurial in its rapid shifts of meter and mood. In the second movement blue-notes Gershwin-esque flavor is palpable, with a drum set's off-the-best percussion adding bite and intensity.

Millennium Fantasy is a fine addition to the piano concertante canon. The accessible, tightly crafted work is characteristic of Zwilich in its graceful melding of solo virtuosity and colorful orchestral effects. Biegel's nervy pianism and virtuosic edge gave this work sterling advocacy, with refined full-tilt support by Christie and the orchestra.