So in my opinion, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff and the best composers to ever walk the face of the planet... but I do also like the beginning stuff like Vivaldi and Mozart

Liszt is amazing the way he modulates through different keys without you noticing, Mozart is also very good at this especially in Piano Sonata in C# minor.

Though technically of the Romantic period, not Classical, Frederic Chopin is awesome. His nocturnes are mindblowing.

Ludovico einauri is a modern classical composer who rocks...

Uhm, Franz Schubert's Standchen from Schwansegesang is very pretty
And yea, some Elgar (but technically not classical, I suppose)

Beethoven and Mozart, fine then

Picking a favorite composer is like picking a favorite book, or favorite kind of tea- read them all, drink them all, love them all.

I hope that doesn't mean I'm a sell out. I could probably tell you a great deal about just about every known composer/artist/musician from today to about 1100. That's not selling out- that's being eclectic and well informed.

"Sell out, with me oh yeah, sell out, with me tonight
Record company's gonna give me lots of money
And everything's gonna be all right."

My brother wrote a paper for music where he argued that after Wagner came under the patronage the Bavarian king after years of shovelling it on his own, Wagner became a total sellout. But that doesn't stop him from being a Fascist.

jon2907 wrote:

QUOTE:
Liszt is amazing the way he modulates through different keys without you noticing,

yer, but he's so very very boring. and a show off more than a composer (you just need to see his orchestrations to see that he didn't totally know what was going on). Chopin much better.

anyway, my favs:
Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Sonata (and most other things he wrote after his rubbish period),

Schostakovich - all of (apart from his film scores),

Rawsthorne - all of. everything.

and... Rautavaara choral stuff.

And Bartok. And Gorecki (especially his mental stuff). The STRAV. Part. Tippett. MESSIAEN. Milhaud. Khatchaturian.

and Bach, obviously. He is god. (I think someone said that already...)

Niccolo Paganini
The 24th caprice.
<3<3<3

Mozart! best composer ever! i did a whole concert inspired by him! my fav song by him is sonata K331 movements 1 and2!

i also love liszt "liebstraum nocturne"! i learned it last year!

I quite like pices once I've had the pravalage of playing them. For orchestras I quite like the 1st movement of Scubers unfinished symphone, Allegro from Mozarts basoon concerto (I've played it even though i don't play basoon), Le Coc Dore and Russan salor dance. I've also played some very nice pices with a brass band like Paganini Variations, Resergum, Tritico, Diversions on a Bass theim and, possably my favorate clasical piece, Talis Variations.