Pentatone (record label)

Pentatone (stylized as PENTATONE) is an international classical music label located in Baarn, Netherlands.

History
Three former executives of Philips Classics, Giel Bessels, Dirk van Dijk and Job Maarse, established the label in 2001. The name comes from the words penta (five) and tone (sound), meaning five channels of sound. The label is renowned for its high-resolution multichannel surround sound recordings which are released in the Super Audio CD format. In January 2002, PENTATONE recorded the official music which was performed during the wedding ceremony of the Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander and Máxima Zorreguieta. The album, “The Music from the Royal Wedding”, sold more than 75,000 copies, thereby attaining the unique “triple platinum” status.

The label has also licensed recordings made by other labels such as Philips Classics and Deutsche Grammophon. Among these are some from the 1970s which were originally recorded for 4-channel quadraphonic sound. PENTATONE has remastered them for re-release and presented them in surround sound for the first time. All PENTATONE's hybrid Super Audio CD discs can also be heard in 2-channel stereo on conventional compact disc players.

In 2013, a new management team joined PENTATONE and the label expanded to multiple formats releases, including regular cd, vinyl, and all formats for streaming and downloads. The first vinyl was released in 2017 as a luxury 3LP edition. The label decided to honour Julia Fischer's Bach violin solo recordings (originally released by the label in 2005).

In April 2022, PENTATONE appointed Sean Hickey as managing director, succeeding Simon M Eder. The following month it was announced that PENTATONE had been acquired by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Awards
In 2004, the label received a Grammy Award for their recording of Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, where the story is told from the perspective of the wolf and has the theme of letting animals live in peace. Other award-winning issues have included John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, part of the American Opera Series, which won multiple awards, including the 59th Grammy Award as Best Opera Recording and Best Engineered Album.

In 2019 PENTATONE's premiere recording of the Mason Bates opera “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” won the Best Opera Recording at the 61st Grammy Awards. Among the winners were composer Mason Bates, librettist Mark Campbell, the Santa Fe Opera, conductor Michael Christie, and the cast, which included Sasha Cooke, Jessica E. Jones, Edward Parks, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, and Elizabeth Ostrow. The opera was nominated for Best Contemporary Composition but lost to the Kernis Violin Concerto.

In 2019, the label was awarded Label of the Year by the Gramophone Magazine. In 2020, PENTATONE won the title of Label of the Year in the International Classical Music Awards. In 2024, four albums received GRAMMY nominations in four different categories.

In April 2024, PENTATONE exclusive artist Sean Shibe won the Instrumental Award at the 2024 BBC Music Magazine Awards for his album Profesión.

Artists
Piano
 * Pierre-Laurent Aimard
 * Yulianna Avdeeva
 * Inon Barnatan
 * Sa Chen
 * Saskia Giorgini
 * Martin Helmchen
 * Mari Kodama
 * Momo Kodama
 * Denis Kozhukhin
 * Francesco Piemontesi
 * Tiffany Poon

Cello
 * Matt Haimovitz
 * Johannes Moser
 * Alisa Weilerstein
 * Max Lilja

Violin
 * Julia Fischer
 * Leticia Moreno
 * Arabella Steinbacher

Guitar
 * Sean Shibe

Clarinet
 * Annelien Van Wauwe

Mandolin
 * Alon Sariel

Soprano
 * Christina Landshamer
 * Kathryn Lewek
 * Hanna-Elisabeth Müller
 * Lisette Oropesa
 * Sondra Radvanovsky
 * Chen Reiss

Mezzo-Soprano
 * Sasha Cooke
 * Alice Coote
 * Ann Hallenberg
 * Magdalena Kožená
 * Elisabeth Kulman

Countertenor
 * Bejun Mehta
 * Maarten Engeltjes

Tenor
 * René Barbera
 * Piotr Beczała
 * Ian Bostridge
 * Javier Camarena
 * Christian Elsner
 * Michael Fabiano
 * Adam Plachetka
 * Stefano Secco
 * Karim Sulayman

Conductors
 * Marc Albrecht
 * Herbert Blomstedt
 * Semyon Bychkov
 * Roderick Cox
 * Christoph Eschenbach
 * Diego Fasolis
 * Lawrence Foster
 * Riccardo Frizza
 * Gustavo Gimeno
 * Philippe Herreweghe
 * Jakub Hrůša
 * René Jacobs
 * Marek Janowski
 * Vladimir Jurowski
 * Yakov Kreizberg
 * Andrew Manze
 * Neville Marriner
 * Simon Murphy
 * Kent Nagano
 * Jonathan Nott
 * Daniel Oren
 * Andrés Orozco-Estrada
 * Mikhail Pletnev
 * Carlo Ponti
 * Daniel Reuss
 * Esa-Pekka Salonen
 * Kazuki Yamada

Ensembles
 * Calder Quartet
 * Calefax
 * Emerson String Quartet
 * Mirò Quartet
 * Signum Quartet
 * PRJCT Amsterdam

Orchestras
 * Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
 * B'Rock Orchestra
 * Czech Philharmonic
 * The Dresdner Philharmonie
 * Houston Symphony
 * Il pomo d’oro
 * hr-Sinfonieorchester
 * Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
 * Holland Baroque
 * Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra
 * Lyric Opera of Chicago
 * NDR Radiophilharmonie
 * Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest
 * New Dutch Academy
 * Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
 * Oregon Symphony
 * Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
 * Russian National Orchestra
 * San Francisco Symphony
 * Washington National Opera
 * WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne
 * Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Composers
 * Timo Andres
 * David Balakrishnan
 * Liza Balkan
 * Marcos Balter
 * Lisa Bielawa
 * Todd Boss
 * Mark Campbell (librettist)
 * Christopher Cerrone
 * Annabelle Chvostek
 * Francisco Coll
 * John Corigliano
 * Nia Franklin
 * Gordon Getty
 * Philip Glass
 * Jake Heggie
 * Wim Henderickx
 * Jennifer Higdon
 * Hilarion (Alfeyev)
 * Huang Ruo
 * David Henry Hwang
 * Vijay Iyer
 * Gabriel Kahane
 * David Lang
 * David T. Little
 * Tod Machover
 * Sky Macklay
 * Missy Mazzoli
 * Brad Mehldau
 * Nico Muhly
 * Colleen Murphy
 * Niloufar Nourbakhsh
 * Nkeiru Okoye
 * Tomeka Reid
 * John K. Samson
 * David Sanford
 * Kamala Sankaram
 * Gene Scheer
 * Caroline Shaw
 * Roberto Sierra
 * Gabriella Smith
 * Lewis Spratlan
 * Tamar-kali
 * Jeanine Tesori
 * Royce Vavrek
 * Fernando Velázquez
 * Luna Pearl Woolf
 * Paul Moravec

Catalogue series

 * Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg series
 * AMERICAN OPERAS Series
 * Dances Series
 * REMASTERED CLASSICS Philips Classics
 * PENTATONE Oxingale Series
 * REMASTERED CLASSICS Deutsche Grammophon
 * RQR Series