I go for Ravel in a very big way. There is a warmth (and check out this ballet/pantomime called Ma Mere l'Oye (Mother Goose) the last tableau, Le Feerique Jardin, should make ya cry.) coupled with a coolness, clothed in the silk and cool of his orchestrations, and a sensuousness... I could go on...
Stravinsky is key. Le Sacre du Printemps. (gotta love a work that its premiere inspired actual fisticuffs among its immediate defenders and critics)
Bartok Concerto For Orchestra. Music For Strings Percussion and Celesta (night music, INSECTS)
Debussy's more Orientalist stuff, tho some of his stuff is too pastel and sugar-sweet for me.
I go for 20th century (and hey now it's the 21st, peoples still writing music, how bout that)... and something mas pica por favor. I dump extra hot sauce on lotta my food too.
[When you say 'classical' it has the connotation somewhat of the per se classical period, Mannheim School, and you think of Mozart Haydn et al. - the nineteenth century.
There is a certain 'for dead popes' aroma to that in my nose sometimes, but as craft and art it's pretty hip.]
Also formally, the forward movement of classical music is all about the male thrust to completion, the drive to the tonic, drive it home, boys. EG: Ravel (tho is sometimes macho or almost macha), by contrast, just lingers there, if ya know what I mean, (loves you long time and takes his time) and I think some o y'all MIGHT... tee hee)
Aaron Copland - Hoedown.
well don't get me started here...........