Yeah but does J.S. sometimes strike you as a little pedantic and pretentious?
I think Beethoven was more succinct, Mozart and Wagner and Chopin more brilliant.
A different era and style of Music. Bach composed in the Baroque Period of Classical Music and was perhaps its foremost composer. It was much more ornamental and structured. As well the instruments of the day imposed certain limitations in their voicing and range. For example the Harpsichord, unlike the piano, varies only in pitch not in volume, as well the Baroque Trumpet was still valveless. However, the Brandenburg Concertos stand as some of the greatest works of the Baroque - and of all time. Bach's works for the Organ both in their depth and extent have never been equalled. Franz Liszt tried.
Beethoven was a child of the "Classical Era" and tutored by the foremost Symphonist of the time "Papa Haydn" - Franz Joseph Haydn, genius that he was, Beethoven was an innovator who was the last great composer of the Classical Period and founded the modern Romantic Period. I think Brahms was perhaps his only equal. Brahms, alas, was a procrastinator and was not as prolific as Beethoven writing only 4 Symphonies. When it debuted Brahms' Symphony number 1 was heralded as the greatest Symphonic work since Beethoven and still deserves that accolade today. Brahms Violin Concerto is masterful and deserves to be in any collection of classical music worthy of the name. Antonin Dvorak was only of slightly lesser genius and composed some truly fine Symphonic works. If you have never listened to the Dvorak "Cello Concerto" you are missing one of the two greatest works for the instrument; the other being Sir Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto. I've gone back and forth as to which I think the greater work. They are quite different in style and composition but both are truly magnificent.
Other composers have approached the heights in a few works but never as consistently. The Mahler Symphony #1 "The Titan" is a must for the Classical Collection. Thcaikovsky's Piano Concerto is perhaps the greatest ever written for that instrument and his Symphonies are also works of genius. Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov's "Scheherezade" (The Phillips recording conducted by Kirill Kondrashin is the definitive recording) is one of the two or three greatest "Tone Poems".