The collaboration of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and conductor Vasily Petrenko continues to yield satisfying results as orchestra and leader come to know each other at a deeper level. Petrenko had conducted Stravinsky's Petrushka a number of times when these recordings were made in 2017, and by this time, everything in the performance fell perfectly into place. The album did not appear until 2020, perhaps released due to a coronavirus drought of new material; in any event, one can be happy that it was shaken loose from the vaults. Petrenko is not a creator of drastically new interpretations, but he finds the best in the ones that already exist. His Petrushka is precise and wonderfully lively, with every instrumental detail in place, and it would make a great first recording of the work for anyone. For those already deeper into it, the main attraction may be the less common La boutique fantasque, listed as being by Respighi after Rossini. It originated when the impresario Serge Diaghilev moved to Paris during World War I and commissioned several time-travel ballets, as he called them, based on older Italian music. The famous result was Stravinsky's Pulcinella of 1920, but La boutique fantasque preceded it and deserves a new look. It is based on later piano works of Rossini, which were edited by Diaghilev himself, orchestrated by Respighi at Diaghilev's request, and strung together into a short ballet. The results are colorful, less original than Pulcinella surely, but quite complementary to the Stravinsky, and in general, a lot of fun. With the great acoustics of the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool exploited to the hilt here, this is a superior ballet release.