Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, 84, has graduated from being an institution to being a phenomenon. It’s hard to think of another living musician who has trod a comparable path: from prodigy — he wrote his first orchestral composition at age 7 — to elder statesman. Both facets of the Polish-born composer-conductor, who has conducted the Minnesota Orchestra in each of the past 47 seasons, are on striking display this week in Orchestra Hall (an edifice he helped build).

The program’s centerpiece is the world premiere of Skrowaczewski’s “Fantasia for Flute and Orchestra — The Piper in the Night,” commissioned by the Saarbr cken [Germany] Radio Symphony (with which the conductor has lately recorded the Beethoven symphonies) and written for flutists Adam Kuenzel, the Minnesota Orchestra’s principal, and Roswitha Staege, formerly principal in Saarbr cken.

Effectively a flute concerto (with the first of its several cadenzas at the very beginning), the work, in three movements, is scored for both the standard flute and its lower-pitched, more somber alto sibling. Much of the best writing is for the latter, which Kuenzel plays gorgeously. Skrowaczewski’s music typically feels open-ended. His scores aren’t self-contained, neatly wrapped musical objects; they are a means for conversing with their maker — especially when he’s on the podium.

Kuenzel’s performance is masterful (though I wish he could dispense with the score and address himself directly to the audience). Whether playing long, tensile lines or incorporating extended techniques (bent notes, key clicks, blowing into the instrument), he is intensely and unfailingly musical. Framing the “Fantasia” are two of Vienna’s crown jewels: Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony and Brahms’ Second.