He started the Romantic period, he was deaf when he wrote some of the greatest symphonies ever made… His letters to his Immortal Beloved were beautiful.
Really, it’s too impossible for me to narrow it down to one single “favorite” composer. Composers, especially across classical time periods, vary so much. I can narrow it down to a list, perhaps. Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak…
How about favorite five? Rossini, Holst, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and of course Richard Wagner. Ride of the Valkyries or The Flying Dutchman turned up to 30 (maximum) on my home stereo makes me a happy man! It makes the windows shake and the walls vibrate, and I like it that way.