Pentatone (stylized as PENTATONE) is an international

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

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 Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Bea ...

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 Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for t ...

. 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 Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

on conventional

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in O ...

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 The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for their recording of ''

Peter and the Wolf ''Peter and the Wolf'' ( rus, Петя и Bолк, r="Pétya i volk", p=ˈpʲetʲə i volk, links=no) Op. 67, a "symphonic fairy tale for children", is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The narrator tells a children's s ...

'', narrated by

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

and

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...

, 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 John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...

's ''The Ghosts of Versailles'', part of the American Opera Series, which won multiple awards, including the 59th

Best Opera Recording The Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording has been awarded since 1961. The award was originally titled Best Classical Opera Production. The current title has been used since 1962. Prior to 1961 the awards for operatic and choral performances were ...

and Best Engineered Album. In 2019 Pentatone's premiere recording of the Mason Bates opera “

The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs ''The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs'' is an opera with music by American composer Mason Bates and an English-language libretto by Mark Campbell. It was commissioned by Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, the Jacobs School of Music at ...

” 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 A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

Magazine. In 2020, Pentatone won the title of Label of the Year in the International Classical Music Awards.

Artists

Piano * Mari Kodama *

Martin Helmchen Martin Helmchen (born 1982) is a German pianist. He has played with international orchestras and has recorded discs of many classical composers. Life Helmchen was born in Berlin. He began his piano studies at the age of six, and graduated from th ...

* Min Young Kang *

Denis Kozhukhin Denis Kozhukhin (born in Nizhny Novgorod, 1986) is a Russian pianist who was awarded third prize in the 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition. He was also awarded first prize in the 2010 Belgian Queen Elisabeth Competition for piano. Record ...

Pierre-Laurent Aimard Pierre-Laurent Aimard (born 9 September 1957) is a French pianist. Biography Aimard was born in Lyon, where he entered the conservatory. Later he studied with Yvonne Loriod and with Maria Curcio. In 1973, he was awarded the chamber music priz ...

* Nareh Argamanian * Momo Kodama *

Sa Chen Sa Chen (; born 21 November 1979) is a Chinese pianist. She won first prize in the 1994 China International Piano Competition, fourth place in the XIV International Chopin Piano Competition in 2000, fourth place in the Leeds International Pia ...

Francesco Piemontesi Francesco Piemontesi is a Swiss pianist. Life Born in 1983 in Locarno, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Arie Vardi before closely collaborating with Alfred Brendel. He rose to international prominence with prize ...

* Inon Barnatan * Kirill Kuzmin * Saskia Giorgini * Maxim Bernard * Paul Rivinius * Yefim Bronfman * Tamara Stefanovich * Lars Vogt Cello * Johannes Moser * Matt Haimovitz * Alisa Weilerstein Violin *

Arabella Steinbacher Arabella Miho Steinbacher (born 14 November 1981) is a German classical violinist. Biography Steinbacher was born in Munich to a Japanese mother and a German father. When she was three, her mother read that a German violin teacher had recentl ...

* Julia Fischer * Leticia Moreno * Jesus Rodolfo Guitar *

Sean Shibe Sean Shibe ( ; born 1992) is a classical and electric guitarist from Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He is of English and Japanese ancestry. He studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (and was the youngest student to enter the then Royal Scotti ...

Clarinet * Annelien Van Wauwe Flute * Ana de la Vega Mandolin * Alon Sariel Harpsichordists * Francesco Corti * Andrea Buccarella Mezzo-Soprano * Alice Coote *

Ann Hallenberg Ann Hallenberg (born 17 March 1967) is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. She has a busy career on the stage and concert platform around Europe embracing roles by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and Purcell. Hallenberg studied at the ...

* Magdalena Kozena * Anna Lucia Richter *

Sasha Cooke Sasha Cooke is an American mezzo-soprano. Cooke was born in Riverside, California, and grew up in College Station, Texas, where her parents are professors of Russian at Texas A&M University. She earned a bachelor's degree from Rice University and ...

Elisabeth Kulman Elisabeth Kulman (born 28 June 1973) is an Austrian classical singer who has performed operatic roles in soprano, mezzo-soprano and contralto repertory. She has appeared at opera houses in Vienna and internationally. She has performed early operas ...

* Magdalena Kožená Soprano * Lisa Delan * Anna Lucia Richter *

Chen Reiss Chen Reiss (born 1979, he, חן רייס) is an Israeli operatic soprano. She began piano studies at age 5, ballet at age 7, and voice lessons at age 14. She decided to focus on vocal studies by age 16. Reiss performed leading parts at the Vie ...

Sondra Radvanovsky Sondra Dee Radvanovsky (born 11 April 1969) is an American-Canadian soprano. Specializing in 19th-century Italian opera, Radvanovsky has been called one of the leading Verdi sopranos of her generation. Her signature roles include Elvira in ''Erna ...

* Kathryn Lewek * Melody Moore *Francesca Aspromonte * Hanna-Elisabeth Müller *

Lisette Oropesa Lisette Oropesa (born September 29, 1983) is an American operatic soprano of Cuban ancestry. She has a wide repertoire that includes works from Gluck, Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Wagner, Verdi, Bizet, Massenet and Puccini. With her lyric ...

* Christina Landshamer Tenor *

Christian Elsner Christian Elsner (born 11 August 1965) is a German tenor in opera and concert, and an academic voice teacher at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. He focused first on lied and oratorio, then entered the opera stage in roles such as Handel's Tab ...

* Piotr Beczala *

Michael Fabiano Michael Fabiano (born 8 May 1984) is an American operatic tenor. Born in Montclair, New Jersey, he has performed in leading opera houses throughout the world, including the San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Sydney Opera, Teatr ...

* Stefano Secco * René Barbera * Ian Bostridge *

Javier Camarena Javier Camarena (born March 26, 1976) is a Mexican operatic tenor. Camarena was born in Xalapa, Veracruz. His father was a nuclear plant technician. He specializes in roles from the bel canto era of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti operas such a ...

Baritone * John Chest * Lester Lynch Bass-baritone * Adam Plachetka Countertenor *

Bejun Mehta Bejun Mehta (born 29 June 1968) is an American countertenor. He has been awarded the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award,http://www.gramophone.co.uk/awards/2014/contemporary Gramophone Awards 2014 Contemporary Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine, the Ch ...

Ensembles *

Calder Quartet The Calder Quartet (CQ) is a string quartet based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1998 at the University of Southern California, the group takes its name from American sculptor Alexander Calder. The ensemble is currently composed of its ...

* Calefax *

Signum Quartet The Signum Quartet is a string quartet based in Bremen, Germany. Founded in 1994, it has been playing in the current formation since 2016. Concert and festival appearances The Signum Quartet has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Cité ...

* Emerson String Quartet * Mirò Quartet * Bastarda Trio * Música Temprana * cantoLX * Ruisi Quartet Choir * South Dakota Chorale * Kup Taldea * Cappella Amsterdam * The Clarion Choir Conductors * Andres Orozco-Estrada *

Andrew Manze Andrew Manze (born 14 January 1965) is a British conductor and violinist living in Germany. Born in Beckenham, United Kingdom, Manze read Classics at Cambridge University. Manze studied violin and worked with Ton Koopman (his director in t ...

Diego Fasolis Diego Fasolis (born 19 April 1958) is a Swiss classical organist and conductor, the leader of the ensemble I Barocchisti. He has conducted operas in historically informed performance at major European opera houses and festivals, and has made award- ...

* David Bates * Marc Albrecht * Marek Janowski *

Vladimir Jurowski Vladimir Mikhailovich Jurowski (; born 4 April 1972) is a Russian conductor. He is the son of conductor Michail Jurowski, and grandson of Soviet film music composer Vladimir Michailovich Jurowski. Early life Born in Moscow, Jurowski began hi ...

* Jakub Hrusa *

Kazuki Yamada Kazuki Yamada (山田和樹; born 26 January 1979) is a Japanese conductor. Biography Yamada was born in Hadano, Kanagawa Prefecture. He studied music, with a focus on percussion, at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where his conducting tea ...

Gustavo Gimeno Gustavo Gimeno (born 1976, Valencia, Spain) is a Spanish conductor. He is currently chief conductor of the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Biography The son of a clarinetist, Gimeno studied ...

* Lawrance Foster *

* Kent Nagano * Carlo Conti * Roderick Cox * Riccardo Frizza * Semyon Bychkov * Simon Murphy * Mikhail Pletnev * Sir Neville Marriner * Yakov Kreizberg * Philippe Herreweghe * Jonathan Nott *

Herbert Blomstedt Herbert Thorson Blomstedt (; born 11 July 1927) is a Swedish conductor. Herbert Blomstedt was born in Massachusetts. Two years after his birth, his Swedish parents moved the family back to their country of origin. He studied at the Stockholm Ro ...

* Christoph Eschenbach *

Daniel Reuss Daniel Reuss (born 2 July 1961, in Leiden)Biography
at allmusic.com. is a Daniel Oren * Rene Jacobs Orchestras * Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin * Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra * Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest * Russian National Orchestra *

NDR Radiophilharmonie The NDR Radiophilharmonie is a German radio orchestra, affiliated with the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in Hanover, the capital of Lower Saxony. The orchestra principally gives concerts in the ''Großer Sendesaal'' of the '' Landesfunkhaus Nieder ...

* WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne * hr-Sinfonieorchester * Houston Symphony * Oregon Symphony * Orchestre de la Suisse Romande * State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ''Evgeny Svetlanov” * New Dutch Academy * Il pomo d’oro *

Czech Philharmonic The Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic) is a symphony orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra's principal concert venue is the Rudolfinum. History The name "Czech Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared for the first time in 1894, as the titl ...

* Washington National Opera * Basque National Orchestra * Lyric Opera of Chicago * Coro & Orquestra Gulbenkian * Holland Baroque * Gewandhausorchester Leipzig * The Dresdner Philharmonie *

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Academy for Early Music Berlin, short name: Akamus) is a German chamber orchestra founded in East Berlin in 1982. Each year Akamus gives approximately 100 concerts, ranging from small chamber works to large-scale s ...

* B'Rock Orchestra Composers * Gordon Getty *

Jeanine Tesori Jeanine Tesori (known earlier in her career as Jeanine Levenson) is an American composer and musical arranger best known for her work in the theater. She is the most prolific and honored female theatrical composer in history, with five Broadway m ...

Jake Heggie Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers. ...

Jennifer Higdon Jennifer Elaine Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Award for Best Contemp ...

* Jimmy López Bellido * Hilarion Alfeyev * Luna Pearl Woolf * Viktor Orri Árnason *

Francisco Coll Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

* Wim Henderickx * Fernando Velázquez * Klein * Missy Mazzoli * Niloufar Nourbakhsh * Tomeka Reid * Nico Muhly * Juri Seo * David Balakrishnan * Sky Macklay *

Nia Franklin Nia Imani Franklin (born July 27, 1993) is an American composer and beauty pageant titleholder. In June 2018, she was crowned Miss New York 2018. On September 9, 2018, she was crowned Miss America 2019 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, by the outgoin ...

* Jennifer Jolley * Alex Weston * Nina Shekhar * Texu Kim * Caroline Shaw * Kamala Sankaram * Mark Campbell (librettist) * Matt Boehler * Gabriella Smith * David Sanford *

David T. Little David T. Little (born October 25, 1978) is a Grammy-nominated American composer, record producer, and drummer known for his operatic, orchestral, and chamber works, most notably his operas ''JFK,'' ''Soldier Songs'', and '' Dog Days'' which was ...

* Nkeiru Okoye * Jorge Sosa * Vijay Iyer * Roberto Sierra * Asher Sizemore * Tod Machover * Laura Elise Schwendinger *

Lisa Bielawa Lisa Carol Bielawa (born September 30, 1968) is a composer and vocalist. She is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition and spent a year composing as a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Early life and education Bielawa was born i ...

Todd Boss Todd (Ryan) Boss (born December 6, 1968) is an American poet, installation artist, and film producer, and inventor based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has published several collections of poetry and contributed to literary journals. He has als ...

Royce Vavrek Royce Vavrek is a Canadian-born Brooklyn-based librettist, playwright, dance scenarist, musical theatre writer and filmmaker known for his collaborations with composers David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Mikael Karlsson, Ricky Ian Gordon, Paola P ...

* Rene Orth * Colleen Murphy *

Christopher Cerrone Christopher Cerrone (born March 5, 1984) is an American composer based in New York City. He was a 2014 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a 2014 Fromm Foundation commission recipient, a 2015 Rome Prize winner in Music Composition, and has received nu ...

John K. Samson John Kristjan Samson (born 1973) is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a singer-songwriter and best known as the frontman of the Canadian indie folk/rock band The Weakerthans. He also played bass in the punk band Propagandhi durin ...

* Gabriel Kahane * Andrew Marshall * Huang Ruo *

David Henry Hwang David Henry Hwang (born August 11, 1957) is an American playwright, librettist, screenwriter, and theater professor at Columbia University in New York City. He has won three Obie Awards for his plays '' FOB'', '' Golden Child'', and '' Yel ...

* Timo Andres * Hilary Purrington * Lembit Beecher * Liza Balkan * Emily Roller * Joel Thompson *

Gene Scheer Gene Scheer (born April 28, 1958) is an American songwriter, librettist and lyricist. Brother to Samuel Scheer, an English teacher at Windsor High School and part-time musician. Education and early career Scheer was born in New York City. He receiv ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive ...

Annabelle Chvostek Annabelle Chvostek (born October 5, 1973) is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. Life and career Born in Toronto, she is the daughter of Canadian television producer Milan Chvostek ('' The Nature of Things'') and journalist ...

* Layale Chaker *

Lewis Spratlan M. Lewis Spratlan Jr. (born September 5, 1940) is an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Lewis Spratlan, recipient of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in music and the Charles Ives Opera Award (2016) from the Ame ...

Marcos Balter Marcos Balter (born April 1, 1974) is a Brazilian contemporary classical music composer and the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia University. Life and professional career Balter began his music studies at age five at ...

Tamar-kali Tamar-kali (born Tamara Colletta Brown) is an American rock singer-songwriter and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. Early life Tamar-kali was born and raised in Brooklyn a 2nd generation musician through her father, who was a band leader ...

* Osnat Netzer * Phonodelica * David Lang

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

References

External links

Official website of Pentatone

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube
{{Authority control Classical music record labels Dutch record labels Record labels established in 2001 2001 establishments in the Netherlands