Beethoven's contemporaries tend to be overshadowed, but there's a lot of really great stuff there

composers of the first few decades of the 19th century I find tend to get overshadowed. The only other composer I think most average listeners could name is Schubert and maybe they would have heard of one or two others, but there really is so much great stuff to explore. I've been falling in love with the music of ferdinand ries(his piano sonatas and concertos are great and very similar in style to his teacher). Then of course there's also the works of Hummel and Czerny has some good stuff even though most people just know him for the etudes. John Field was very much a proto romantic Chopiny figure. Anton Eberl has lots of great stuff as well.