favorite composer?

[comme_le_vent]

go out and buy marc-andre hamelin's alkan cds - they contain his greatest music -

the concerto for solo piano, the symphony for solo piano, the grande sonata, the sonatine, the trois morceaux dans le genre pathetique - including the skull crushing 'morte' and 'amie-moi' with a melody as beautiful as anything by chopin.
but the first work you should check out is le festin d'aesop - you just cant help but fall in love with this work on first hearing - it is what made me fall in love with alkan  

[comme_le_vent]

unusual/unknown composers that i love include-

arensky - for his piano trio and piano concerto
ornstein - for his piano sonatas and danse suavage
saint-saens - not that unusual, but hes underrated
bortkiewicz - the piano concerto is rachmaninov-esque
moszkowski - some awesome chopin-esque salon music
medtner - like a more complex rachmaninov
sibelius - his piano music is great and overlooked
nielsen - ditto
poulenc - ditto

there are for piano music...
but i also love many non-piano such as mahler, berlioz etc..

[DuLudvig]

BEETHOVEN!!!

Not that I don't like Mozart, Bach, Liszt, Haydn, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Joplin, and Gershwin....Ecetera, ecetera, ecetera...but none of them have made me feel pure joy, melt because it was so breathtaking beautiful, and even cry sometimes.

Favorite piece?? Let's see, I can't just choose one so...
The Triple Concerto, Choral Fantasie, the Seventh Symphony, piano sonata Op 27 no. 2, and the Emperor Concerto.

Du

[Allan]

Bach is best.  He set music on such a high level that all good music after him is, to some degree, derivative.  As one musician once said, "his mind is universal, his heart is overwhelming and the spirit of God prevalent in his work is transcendent."  

Since I also play the organ, when I play one of those incredible, inspiring, and thrilling preludes and fugues, or a choral from the Orgelbuchlein, I think to myself, "This is as close to heaven as I experience here on earth."