Whatcha mean by prime? Classical era is just a style of music. Very much followed the straightforward theory developed during the Baroque period. There were some new conventions in theory that appeared (such as a weird resolution... the Augmented 6 chords that resolve a M3 up, or a Minor 2nd down to the Dominant, that started to appear in the music of that century), but the basic structure remained.
By prime, I mean the time when Classical was the only music around sort of deal. Debussy create masterpieces when new genres of music where being created, but it is a more recent classical composition in my opinion.
Who else do you enjoy? I love Bach and Mozart for popular composers, and the Russians during the classical/1800's had some great pieces as well.
Nice SoRude, Chopin is a god. Fantaisie Impromptu is one of my favourite pieces to play. Though I think Chris might come and kick our ass for not posting pure classical music in here . Imma go ahead and post this anyway (a piece I have ambitions of playing one day, my hands just cannot move like this):
I know it is a stereotypical piece, but damn its hard to beat Argerich playing Rach 3. Mesmerising from first to last moment. I often stare at a wall when listening to this and only snap out 40 minutes later like "what just happened?":
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Oh, and this is off the beaten track, but no less brilliant. Another one I enjoy playing (took me bloody long enough to learn it). Great party piece because it sounds harder than it is: