Probably my favorite classical composer is the Russian pianist-composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915). He was a contemporary of Rachmaninov, and composed 5 symphonies, 1 piano concerto, 10 piano sonatas, and many smaller piano works such as preludes, etudes, & mazurkas. His music evolved through 3 distinct phases, beginning with conventional tonality, and ending with a highly idiosyncratic form of atonality, the middle phase being transitional with one foot in the early phase as he explored aspects of the later. My introduction to his music was by way of what is probably his most widely known work (not necessarily his best or one of my favorites now), from his early period, the etude op. 8 no. 12. What attracted me to it was its "unbuttoned" and passionate quality. Having until then been most fond of hard rock and r&b music, I was fascinated by the emotive qualities of those genres being present in the classical style which I thought of as prim and proper: