"Bella Napoli" has been rewarded with one of the prestigious "Editor's Choice Awards 2008" by the British music magazine Grammophone.

Grammophone Magazine titles:
Blissful Berliners head south for a sun-drenched Italian excursion
and states that:
An elite team from the Berlin Philharmonic grace this disc, crowned, of course, by Christoph Hartmann’s playing. His tone is marvellously sweet and appealing, his dexterity a thing of wonder. A most enjoyable programme wanders from Bellini to Hasse to Scarlatti – sumptuous stuff.

For Christoph Hartmann and his ensemble two highlights of this season will be concert tours presenting the "Bella Napoli"-programme in Japan (October 2008) and the United States (March 2009).

Christoph Hartmann has been awarded by the Italian City of Bettola with the "Bettola in musica"-Prize for his outstanding and continuing artistic efforts.

Christoph Hartmann is the 1st winner of this newly founded prize which in future is meant to annually honor "the music and one artist, who succeeds in performing it in a particularly skilled way", says Giulio Manfredi, founder of the "Bettola in musica".

For Christoph Hartmann it has been already the sencond award he got this year. In January his hometown Landsberg am Lech honored him with the golden "Dominikus Zimmermann Rocaille"for his unresting comittment and his valuable contribution to the cultural life of the Landsberg region.

On Friday, August 8th, 2008 Christoph Hartmann and the Ensemble 'I musici di Parma' will perform another concert in Italy.  The program is once again “Concerti per oboe” by A. Vivaldi, J. A. Hasse, V. Bellini and - naturally - A. Pasculli.

On Friday (8.8.08) the musicians will play at 9 pm within the festival "Concerti alla Rocca"  at the Rocca Costanza in Pesaro, the birthtown of Rossini and Renata Tebaldi.

(News from 8/5/2008)

On Wednesday, July 23rd 2008 Christoph Hartmann can be heard with “Concerti per oboe” by A. Vivaldi, J. A. Hasse, V. Bellini and A. Pasculli. He will be accompanied by 'I musici di Parma'.

The concert starts at 9.15 pm on the Piazzetta del Centro in the Italian city of Sorbolo near Parma and is part of the 7th. Open-Air-Festivals "Sorbolo sotte le stelle".

For more concert dates please visit "Concerts". 

(News from 7/20/2008)

On May 16th, 2008 Christoph Hartmann's new CD "Bella Napoli" has been released.

The Italian city Naples inspired poets and painters as well as composers. And it did that long time before the film industry hit Naples. With “Bella Napoli” Christoph Hartmann,  a passionate discoverer of forgotten oboe music, presents an album, in which Naples arises in a beautiful collection of compositions from the baroque to the romantic period. Thus “See Naples and then die!” can now be rephrased into “See Naples and enjoy hearing it!”.

After having released his first solo CD “Fantasia Italiana” – dedicated to the almost forgotten works of Antonio Pasculli – yet another piece of the Sicilian composer – who in his time was called “the Paganini of the Oboe” – fell into Christoph Hartmann’s hands. It carried the picturesque title: Ricordo di Napoli (Recollection of Naples). Starting from this score, “Bella Napoli” step by step uncovers a fascinating chain of teacher-pupil-relationships and of mutual influences and inspirations.

Chronologically the journey begins with Domenico Scarlatti who was born in Naples then goes on to Johann Adolf Hasse, German by birth, who studied in Naples, Domenico Cimarosa, who, like Scarlatti, was born in Naples and continues with two musicians who came to Naples to study: Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini. And finally there is Antonio Pasculli, in whose piece the entire fascination of Naples resounds in incredibly romantic melodies.

For his project Hartmann found committed partners in the Ensemble Berlin, a chamber music group formed by members of the Berlin Philharmonics, with which Hartmann is closely connected through his own little music festival, called “Landsberger Sommermusiken”.