PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS: 
Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
Ferdinand Hérold
French composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold was born in Paris on 28 January 1791, into a musical family of Alsatian descent. He studied composition, harmony, piano and violin at the Paris Conservatoire, becoming an expert keyboard and string player. He won the Prix de Rome in 1812, working in Rome until his move to Naples in 1815, where his first opera was popular with the public at the Real Teatro di San Carlo.
Back in Paris, he wrote a series of further operas, including the best known Zampa ou La Fiancée de marbre (1831) and Le Pré aux Clercs (1832). In addition to over twenty operas, he wrote ballet scores, symphonies and string quartets.
Hérold died from tuberculosis at Thernes on 19 January 1833, aged forty-one.
A selection of articles about Ferdinand Hérold
Music in Kentish Town - Endre Anaru looks forward to an orchestral concert in London later this week featuring the first performance of a new Canadian violin concerto
Ensemble. A Seasonal Nod - Derby Concert Orchestra's Christmas concert, reviewed by Mike Wheeler