Imagine Ida Rubenstein, who commissioned this late work from the old man, dancing to it in private…not to her lover, but to the portrait of her lover, to which she can be just as revealing as she pleases…
I can be as revealing as I please, John (remember what I used to do for a living?). Happy Valentine’s Day, maestro.

I see you like this, mi amor, and I’m a puddle of goo. Above: My number one stroke song. In case you missed it, you mooks, that’s Bolero up there, Maurice Ravel’s 1928 one-movement orchestral piece, played by the Sinfonia of London and conducted by the man I love, John Wilson, for Chandos records, February 2022.
Additional texts in PDF:
- The Cambridge Companion to Ravel by Deborah Mawer, et al
- NOTES to Ravel Orchestral Works (Chandos, 2022)
- “The Story So Far, with Conductor John Wilson”
- “The Story So Far; Or, Conductor John Wilson—His Limits”
- Read my small writing on MEDIUM here
- Free pdf of my book JOHN WILSON: AN ENGLISH CONDUCTOR here
- Free pdf of my memoir re the Gyllenhaals A POET FROM HOLLYWOOD here
- Free pdf / epub of my romantic backstage comedy FEET ON THE GROUND here
- Free pdf of my screenplay BOLDEN: THE UNTOLD STORY OF JFK’S ASSASSINATION here