By Richard Fairman [Financial Times, 14 June 2006]

Packing for a recital tour must be quite a business for Karita Mattila. First there are the evening gowns (she wore two at this recital, one white and elegant, the other a more racy, sky-blue number). Then there are the piles of music from as many different countries. And finally there is the outsize personality that can leave an audience feeling mildly shell-shocked, uncertain whether they have in fact been in the presence of a clandestine member of the camp torch song brigade.