My first and still going strong love in the classical genre is the music of Alexander Scriabin. His music is so soulful and full of passion, sensuality, eroticism, and just shear beauty and poetry. And I was intrigued by the "unbuttoned" nature of his music that I had only experienced at the time in rock, soul, blues, and jazz music. At least one of the links below only worked when I directly pasted it into the address bar, so try that if it says that the video is no longer available.

I'm late to this party but I knew there'd be a thread for this

Dvorak. The new world symphony was one of the first pieces of classical music I truly just..had to hear over and over again. Still makes me tear up.

Second is Holst with the planets.

Third is Saint Saens with the danse macabe and danse bacchanale.

If we're talking about psiners my vote is for Caravaggio.

As for visual Classical art, Vermeer and Renoir come to mind first. All of them are interesting, especially paintings and scultures that tell a story or include iconography.

My favorite piece of Classical music is Vaughn Williams The Lark Ascending. It is so poignant & reminds me of the struggle between the artistic or spiritual soul and day to day drudgery of life, as I see it represented by a Bruegel the Elder painting of peasants working in a field. I have expressed to my family that I would like it to be played in remembrance when I'm gone.

Verdi for opera. Schubert for soft romantic. Mozart for humor. Love most requiems for foreboding.

Assuming you mean classical music, there are composers and performers to consider. Too many to list, but for starters, for the former, Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Dvorak, and my personal favorite, Ludwig Van Beethoven. For the latter, Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anna Sophie Mutter, Christopher Parkening, Joshua Bell, and my new fave Lang Lang. ????

Franz Liszt!! The rest are hacks, ha ha. The man was mad, absolutely mad on the piano.

Leonard Bernstein, composer of classical and Broadway gems, great conductor and mentor to so many young artists. Placido Domingo, tenor and conductor, manager or two opera companies and mentor to so many up and coming vocal artists. Toscanini, great conductor and who stood up to Mussolini, Pavarotti, Bjoerling, Renee Fleming, Janai Brugger (a new upcoming gorgeous singer), Joshua Bell, Vladimir Horowitz, Charles Munch, great conductor and Albert Schweitzer's son-in-law,etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...............

I currently have the great good fortune to live in Chicago, near one of the greatest Symphony Orchestras in the world, currently being directed by one of the greatest conductors of our time. I have a 10-concert series. It's worth every penny.

Beyond that, my next round of favorite artists are Yo Yo Ma, Itzak Perlman, Edgar Meyer, and the Kronos Quartet.
and beyond THAT, the next round contains too many people and groups to mention.

Composers or artists? My all-time favorite performance was that of Slomo Minsk, playing the violin in his performance of Max Bruch's Violin Concerto Number 1 in G Minor.

Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn..

Gustav Holst. Mars will always be a beacon in the darkest gloom.

Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Who remembers him?