Sounds Like You Essential

Ondine's Essential Highlights of Karita Mattila brings together two previous releases, Karita Mattila Live in Helsinki from 2001 and Sibelius: Songs from 1996. Karita Mattila Live in Helsinki begins with riotous opening applause that continues through the orchestral introduction to "Dich teure Halle" from Tannhäuser, greeting Mattila like a rock star, and she performs with the passionate abandon and almost tangible audience rapport characteristic of rock stars. The intensity of her performance is palpable and she is fully invested in this material, holding nothing back. Besides the Wagner, Mattila brings characters from Dvorák, Verdi, and Puccini operas to life with a searing focus. Her powerful, radiant voice in the service of such an intelligent and heartfelt commitment to the music communicates viscerally with her audience.

The seminal San Francisco psychedelic band in the heyday of such things, Jefferson Airplane were sassy, political, and generally engaging. The band then morphed into Jefferson Starship, which was a whole other thing, a more polished band aiming at the pop charts. Eventually Jefferson Starship became just Starship, although the sound stayed aimed at the charts. This two-disc set combines the best tracks from all of these incarnations, which is a good thing if one is a fan of all of the approaches here, but not such a good thing if, like many, one prefers one version of the band to the other two.