My favourite composer is Erik Satie just because the guy is a total nutcase
and I love it. Sometimes I play his pieces and just pause to laugh at some of the instructions above the notes. Like in one piece you are instructed to play "in the morning, on an empty stomach". But then the weird thing is, after a while, some of it begins to make sense. Like one instruction is to "open your mind". Sounds funny at first, but when I'm playing it I can sort of see how it makes sense.....
Anyways, he's not an exceptional composer or anything, just a weird unconventional guy.
I also like Debussy, Chopin, Vaughn-Williams etc, the usual list along with the more traditional favourites. Holst & Beethoven are intriguing because they both had some level of influence from Indian mysticism (btw I like classical music from there as well). Not necessarily on their music, but just in general, and I find these kind of stories to be interesting.
Anyways....yeah, that's basically it. But I like contemporary orchestral stuff too (film scores) and the few orchestral anime scores. I don't like when people use the term "classical music" to refer to any symphonic music.