I could tell you mine, but I will wait and we can start a discussion about your suggestions!
Who are the most important classical composers for you?
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Always been partial to Beethoven and Bach myself 
hmm ill have to get back to you in a little on this because i have some that i like and dont always know the names just the sounds if that makes sense
I’m partial to:
Chopin
Brahms
Beethoven
Although it’s been awhile since I played, Chopin was the one I enjoyed the most.
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If you like Chopin, (Same I do)
Listen to Franz Schubert’s impromtus (Maria Joa Pires or Alfred Brendel, both can be found at YT)
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Schubert, Schumann, Paganini, or really any romantic era composer.
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Servus Andrew mein Freund! 
You are fine?
Schumann is a very difficult composer for me to get close with.
Without his Clara he would not had any success.
Schubert is my much beloved one not only he is a Franz. 
He was a little man (ca 1,56 m tall) this was even in those timeq not very impressive.
He did so beautiful piano works and you as you are a “cantonist” you will like his songs.
“Die Winterreise or Die schöne Müllerin.” Not to forget “Die Forelle” (trout)
I was recently listening to “Der Tod und das Mädchen”. (The death and the maiden)
What a great music.
He was really able to replace a whole orchestra with a single piano.
He died so early and in such poor circumstances.
I am listeing to “B4 Klassik” at the moment.
LvB Symphony Nr. 3 … Thats’ a nice in my tiny office afternoon poring outside.
Now I am listening to Franz Schubert’s “Große C-Symphonie”.
How can a man who knew he would die soon create such a music.
Incredible!
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I don’t have a shortlist here. Beethoven and Bach are great, and Mozart has some exceptional pieces. I haven’t seen Rachmaninoff called out yet.
A lot of what I listen to these days is not actually classical, but in that style in some way - orchestral, symphonic, etc - often soundtracks. The last song I listened to was an orchestral performance of Metallica’s Nothing else matters, no words just music, by Edvin Marton and the Vienna Strauss Symphony Orchestra. If you didn’t know better, you would assume it was a classical piece.
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Apocolyptica does a great job of some Metallica songs… if you’ve never heard of them, they are cellists that play some intense music.
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If you like Rachmaninoff Take a look at Wassili Sergejewitsch Kalinnikow.
Absolutely unknown.
But worth to listen.
I’m going to be honest, from a lyric or melodic standpoint, I would look at Liszt, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Couperin and Verdi (for opera lovers out there). In a harmonic standpoint, I look at Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, Mandelsohn (Fanny Mandelsohn as well), Debussy and Satie. From a theoretical standpoint for those music theory lovers, I look at Nico Muhly, Philip Glass, Stravinsky, (Later) Liszt, Steve Reich, Brahms again, John Cage, and Julian Wachner.
I’m driven by too many composers but it’s a good list to look at. Long story Short, my favorite out of all of them by period would be Couperin for Baroque, Mozart for Classical, Beethoven for the transition between classical and romantic, Chopin and Liszt for Romantic, Debussy for late romantic early modern, Rachmaninoff for modern, Philip glass for minimalism, Nico Muhly for contemporary. There are too many composers to choose from so I choose them by the era, but since my favorite era was Romantic, it would be definitely be Liszt for his accomplishments and how much he had to go through in his long life, a pianist until he was in his 30s, a teacher to the end of his life, a very generous Philanthropist, Traveller, entrepreneur, collaborator, and last but not least, composer. If you read his biography, you’d be surprised how much he went through in his whole life, a crazy awesome musician he was.
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Thank you so much!!!
I see you are a connaisseur.
Franz Liszt
He was a perfect interpreter, made a lot of transcriptions (Schubert)
He was a fantastic pianist ,we know from history, all that you mentioned, but he was not a true composer at all.
Funny indeed you mention Eric Satie and Philip Glass.
Not so well known by many.
I like them both!
Nico Muhly! I will seek for him.
By the way you should take a look at the inumerable bohemian composers about 1800.
eg Roesler (Rossetty) Kalliwoda, Krommer et al.
All nearly forgotten meanwhile but real gems.
What do you think about Richard Strauss?
For me its very difficult to get close to his music.
But I have always problems with all composers after 1900.
Some I really can not understand : Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg …
(But that’s me, others will do 
)
Thanks to Pandora, I am familiar with Apocalyptica. Can’t imagine how I would have heard of them otherwise - except now here I guess.
Metallica is a rich source of content for this type of crossove. Many songs that allow for development in this way, as they even acknowledged by doing it themselves to some extent with the S&M album. Hearing that actually increased my appreciation of metallica significantly.
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Colleague at work started me on them… that and Tool… diametric opposites…
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