Who's your favorite classic music composer?

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if i may throw romanticist and symphony composers of the 20th century into the mix, i'd have to go with beethoven, chopin, liszt, and aram khachaturian.

the great sets of etudes written by liszt and chopin - the 12 transcendental etudes and opus 10/25/three unnumbered, respectively, stand as some of my favorites by those composers and i believe those works in that time helped change the public perception of an etude, from a purely technical piece meant to showcase the skill of the pianist, to a work of art in its own right, alongside a sonata or concerto.

of liszt's etudes, i particularly like mazeppa, chasse-neige and ricordanza, v. ovchinnikov's renditions of those two latter pieces are just marvelous.

i also am a big fan of s. prokofiev's suggestion diabolique, though i'm not familiar with his other work.

Tchaikovsky, I often listen to his music when studying. It doesn't make me work any faster, but low-volume classical is still preferable to the tinnitus in my ears.

Arcangelo Corelli. Honorable mention to Vivaldi.

any sound is preferable to tinnitus. ouch.

ovchnnikov's rendition of "ricordanza" is my favorite. it is a bundle of faded love letters, wilted roses and some could say, unchased dreams.

I love Bach and Khachaturian. But I can't work while listening to it, I just sit slack-jawed and enjoy.

Also, I like some of the great composers for voice: Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Pergolesi, Handel.

Indeed, not much one can do about the condition either, though certainly my love of heavy metal doesn't do me any favours! That's a great piano piece, thanks for sharing.

Gustav Mahler

Heinrich Schuetz, the first great church composer after Martin Luther. He has a simple direct style that hits you over the head.

Francis Poulenc--Some consider his music to be vapid and clownish, until you hear his opera Dialogues des Carmelites, which musically and dramatically grabs you by the throat, slams you up against the wall and pins you there until the end of the show, when the Guillotine comes down on the protaganist's head, ending the show. His religious music has the same effect S Dialogues.

Even when he IS doing something light-hearted, he can blind-side you with unexpected emotions. Like in the Concerto for Two Pianos- alternates between manic and haunting.

JS Bach along with the great (and sometimes neglected) French baroque composers - Louis & Francois Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Jean Henri d'Anglebert, Gaspard Le Roux, Rene Mesangeau, Denis & Vieux Gaultier, Antoine Forqueray.

i didn't know martin luther was a church composer.

cool, i learned something new today.