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.[1] 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[1] which are released in the Super Audio CD format.[1] 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.[2] 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 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.[8]
In 2019, the label was awarded Label of the Year by the Gramophone Magazine.[9] In 2020, PENTATONE won the title of Label of the Year in the International Classical Music Awards.[10]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.