UPDATE 2026
Our current favorite recording of La Boutique Fantasque is the one Solti recorded for Decca in 1957.
It belongs to that very special group of roughly 150 orchestral recordings which have the potential to offer the discriminating (and well-heeled) audiophile the best performances of major works with by far the highest quality sound.
It has been our experience that modern remastered pressings simply cannot compete with the best pressings of these landmark recordings.
The Fiedler (LSC 2084) is still a very good record, but we no longer see much reason to carry it when the Solti is better in almost every way (and quieter as a rule to boot).
Below we have reproduced our full stamper sheet, including the Shootout Winning stampers, which happen to be 3S/4S for this album.
Our Review from 2010
About fifteen years ago we discovered that side one of this album has reversed polarity.
This is a WONDERFUL sounding, very quiet original Shaded Dog pressing of one of the rarest Living Stereo titles. Dropping the needle on side one was a shock — the sound was terrible: thin, shrill and practically unlistenable. Since I know this to be an exceptionally good sounding record, there was only one possibility: reverse absolute phase. Sure enough, the magic of Living Stereo reappeared. If you can’t reverse your polarity, this is not the record for you!
Are they all that way? I have no way of knowing. I run across a clean quiet copy like this once every ten years or so. If any of you out there own this record and yours is not reversed phase let me know what your stamper numbers are, I’d be very interested.
This has always been a favorite title with audiophiles. It’s full of lovely orchestral colors, much like The Nutcracker. As usual, Fiedler and the Boston Pops are accorded superb sound.
In 2022 we did a shootout and sure enough, all the 3S copies on side one had the polarity reversed.
Note that the right Victrola pressings can sound very good and have correct polarity on both sides.
As usual, the Pink Label Victrola pressing we played was awful. Rarely are they not.
| 4/2022 | Rossin-Respighi | La Boutique Fantasque / Fiedler | LSC-2084, Shaded Dog | 3 | 3 | 3S | 4S | other: 2.5/2.5, revere phase S1 |
| 4/2022 | Rossin-Respighi | La Boutique Fantasque / Fiedler | Dark red RCA Victorola, VICS1053 | 2 | 2 | 11S | 7S | normal phase |
| 4/2022 | Rossin-Respighi | La Boutique Fantasque / Fiedler | Dark red RCA Victorola, VICS1053 | 2 | 2 | 7S | 1S | normal phase |
| 4/2022 | Rossin-Respighi | La Boutique Fantasque / Fiedler | Pinkish RCA reissue, VICS1053 (PRRS-3552) | NFG | NFG | 12S | 7S |
By the way, we had a Shaded Dog copy with 4S/5S stampers that was very bright and never made it to the shootout.
La Boutique Fantasque
La Boutique fantasque, also known as The Magic Toyshop or The Fantastic Toyshop, is a ballet in one act conceived by Léonide Massine, who devised the choreography for a libretto written with the artist André Derain, a pioneer of Fauvism. Derain also designed the décor and costumes for the ballet. Ottorino Respighi wrote the music based on piano pieces by Gioachino Rossini.
The Rossini piano works used include Gherkins, Radishes, Butterflies, Themes in Variation, Almonds, Petit Caprice (Style Offenbach), Tarantelle pur Sang, Castor Oil, Abortive polka, and La Danza.
The music was a major contribution to the success of the ballet, whose score was well-orchestrated, kept Rossini’s harmonies, and generally retained his phrasing unaltered while investing his melodies with a new breadth.
Respighi’s score soon took on an existence of its own in the concert hall as a suite. It has been performed many times and is enduringly popular on record.
-Wikipedia