Tempéraments

Where did Mozart’s gifts for passion and tragedy emerge? Shani Diluka’s beautiful, affecting album shines a deserving light on the music of C.P.E. Bach, the original master of drama and passion. His Harpsichord Concerto in D Minor is mischievous and daring, his 12 Variations tinged with a penetrating melancholy—and the Mozart Piano Sonata No. 8 in A Minor that follows shows the extent to which the Austrian composer looked to C.P.E. for inspiration. But Diluka’s masterstroke is her performance of Mozart’s Fantasia in D Minor and C.P.E. Bach’s Andante con tenerezza on a 1790 Walter piano, proving just how desolate and emotive this music could sound in its day.