This program note aims for a better understanding of the four works performed in the recital (Mozart's Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397, Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58, Gubaidulina's Chaconne and Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 14), through the composers' historical background as well as musical and cultural environment. The readers will gain a deeper understanding of the different characteristics of the works by exploring how each composer of utilizes his/her own unique compositional techniques, usage of harmonic colors and the influence of other composers to create these celebrated works.

The implied meaning of Fantasia is "imaginative creation" without fixed form. Composers make use of various materials to present its characteristic style. In his Fantasia in D minor, Mozart explores the dramatic effect by contrasts in the tempi and dynamics, unstable voice leading and tonality, as well as a large number of improvised sections. Amongst numerous musicians in the Romantic Period, Chopin's oeuvre, though romantic in style inherits compositional techniques from the Classical Period, while opening up the door to the music of Modern Period. His idiosyncratic compositional style draws attention from later generations. Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3, although not as dramatic and original as his Second Piano Sonata, is brilliant in spirit, freer in harmonic language, and richer in musical content. Gubaidulina is a female composer representative of new Russian music. She creates a new sound in the music world that has covered not only all the compositional techniques, but involves also the mastery of Modern Art in Europe and America along with the spirits of oriental philosophy. Her music exhibits inner meanings beyond the music itself. Gubaidulina composed this Chaconne using variation technique, with strong and rapidly-changing chords and lively characters. Another Russian composer, Prokofiev, wrote nine piano sonatas, amongst which the Piano Sonata No. 2 in D Minor was composed while he was still a student, yet in it his later marure style can already be sensed. His motto is "to bring in new musical languages within the framework of traditional musical forms." With these new sounds and colors, he stands out among composers of 20th century as radiating a new spirit, yet in the meantime preserving a nostalgic neo-classicism.