The Golden Harp
Harpist Willy Postma's acclaimed 1996 solo recording - newly remastered, the album is now available digitally!
The programme traces the harp's expressive range across four centuries, from Postma's own arrangement of the Prelude from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, through Romantic miniatures by Schumann (Träumerei, from Kinderszenen, and Ständchen, from the 6 Charakterstücke, Op. 33) and Liszt (Consolation No. 3, from S. 172), to core repertoire of the harp tradition, including Préludes pour harpe and pieces by Hasselmans and Renié.
Willy Postma (b. 1942, Amsterdam) is a Dutch-born harpist who has lived and worked in Norway since 1964. She began her career as a pianist, giving her debut playing Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto at 17, before turning to the harp. She was principal harpist of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra for 46 years and previously held the same position with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Postma taught harp at the Norwegian Academy of Music from 1991 to 2011 and was a guest professor at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1992 to 2000. She has commissioned and premiered numerous new works for the instrument, including by Klaus Egge, Johan Kvandal, and Henning Sommerro, and served for nine years on the Board of Directors of the World Harp Congress. In 2007 she was made a Knight, First Class, of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav in recognition of her contribution to Norway's harp community.
Listen
Credits
- Performer
- Willy Postma (Harp)
- Composer
- Johann Sebastian Bach | Henriette Renié | Christian Sinding | Robert Schumann | Oskar Merikanto | Franz Liszt | Ettore Pozzoli | Edvard Grieg | Alphonse Hasselmans | Francesco Petrini
- Arranger
- Willy Postma
- Producer
- Arne-Peter Rognan
- Engineer
- Midtnorsk Lyd AS
- Mastering
- Arne-Peter Rognan | Thomas Wolden
- Executive producer
- Vegard Landaas
- Booklet editor
- Torgeir Landaas
- PR
- Camilla Momkvist-Skau
- Accounting
- Torgeir M. Landaas
- Design
- Anna-Julia Granberg | Blunderbuss
- Recording location
- Fagerborg church, Oslo
- Recording country
- Norway
- Recording year
- 1992
- Recording dates
- September 1992
- Discs / tracks
- 1 disc
- Release year
- 2026
- Label
- LAWO Classics
- EAN
- 7090020184548
- ISRC
- NO2J82601010-230
Biographies
Willy Postma
Willy Postma (born 1942 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Norwegian harpist long resident in Norway. She first entered the Rotterdam Conservatory aged sixteen as a pianist, making her debut at seventeen with Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto, and took up the harp only at the age of eighteen. After a year with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1963–64), she was appointed Principal Harp of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in 1964 — a position she held for forty-six years until 2010. She also served as Principal Harp of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (1971–72) and won the International Harp Contest in Israel in 1970.
She has taught at the Norwegian Academy of Music (1991–2013), the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (1992–2000) and the Trondheim Municipal Music School (1980–2010), and has given masterclasses across Europe, the USA, Canada and Asia. She has commissioned and premiered new works by composers including Klaus Egge, Johan Kvandal, Kjell Mørk Karlsen, Halvor Haug and Henning Sommerro. In 2007 she was made Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav.