Ernest Pingoud

Ernest Pingoud (; 14 October 1887 – 1 June 1942) was a Finnish composer and music critic born in Saint Petersburg.

Life Pingoud was born to a father of French Huguenot ancestry and a German-Finnish mother. His father Guido Pingoud was the pastor of the German Lutheran parish of Saint Catherine in Saint Petersburg, and his mother belonged to the Finland-Swedish Sesemann family, related to the Melartin family. He also studied non-musical subjects, including geology, philosophy and literature, at Jena, Munich, Bonn and Berlin, with German literature as his main subject. He wrote a doctoral thesis on the young Goethe and Romanticism, but it was not approved because new sources that emerged at the same time undermined the material in the thesis. The programme included La dernière aventure de Pierrot, Piano Concerto No. 1 and Danse macabre, works influenced by Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin and Claude Debussy that were the most daring music yet performed in Finland.

Style Pingoud's preferred mode of musical expression was orchestral, especially in symphonic poems following the example of Scriabin

Recordings A CD containing some of Pingoud's symphonic poems has been recorded for Ondine by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo.

Works Solo Voice Barcarole (Venelaulu) Berceuse (Kehtolaulu) Op. 11a No 3 En blomma Op. 11a No 1 Färden i storm (Matka myrskyssä) Op. 11a No 4 Hjärtan fjärran och hjärtan nära... Konvallerna Ninon På kvällen Serenad i Toledo (Serenadi Toledossa) Serenad (Serenadi) Tanke Tystnad Törnekronan (Piikkikruunu) Vattenplask Op. 11a No 2 Återkomsten (Paluu)

Orchestral

Prologue, op. 4 Confessions, op. 5 La dernière aventure de Pierrot, op. 6 Le fétiche, op. 7 Piano Concerto No. 1, op. 8 (1917) Hymne à la nuît, op. 9 Danse macabre, op. 10 Cinq sonettes pour l'orchestre de la chambre, op. 11 Un chevalier sans peur et sans reproche, op. 12 Mysterium, op. 13 Flambeaux éteints, op. 14 Chantecler, op. 15 Le sacrifice, op. 17 Symphony No. 1, op. 18 (1920) Symphony No. 2, op. 20 (1921) Le prophète, op. 21 Piano Concerto No. 2, op. 22 (1921) Piano Concerto No. 3, op. 23 (1922) Symphony No. 3, op. 27 (1923-7) Cor ardens (1927) Narcissous (1930) Le chant de l'espace (1931/38) La flamme éternelle (1936) La face d'une grande ville (1936/37)