<P> The best - known composers from this period are Joseph Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , and Franz Schubert ; other notable names include Luigi Boccherini , Muzio Clementi , Antonio Salieri , Leopold Mozart , Johann Christian Bach , Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , and Christoph Willibald Gluck . Ludwig van Beethoven is regarded either as a Romantic composer or a Classical period composer who was part of the transition to the Romantic era . Franz Schubert is also a transitional figure , as were Johann Nepomuk Hummel , Luigi Cherubini , Gaspare Spontini , Gioachino Rossini , and Carl Maria von Weber . The period is sometimes referred to as the era of Viennese Classic or Classicism ( German : Wiener Klassik ) , since Gluck , Mozart , Haydn , Salieri , Schubert , and Beethoven all worked in Vienna . </P>
who was the composer who spanned the transition between classical and romantic eras
Ludwig van Beethoven