You have a medical bag and a time machine...

[PsB]

In addition to all the excellent suggestions above (esp. Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert), I would add Bartók. Died young, but was still producing some of his greatest and most accessible works (Concerto for Orchestra, piano concerto #3, concerto for viola, violin solo sonata...). Leukemia can't be treated with a medical bag, however well stocked, but early diagnosis would be easier today.

 

[alanbeeb]

I wonder how much Alcohol played a part in his declining output though.

Maybe he wasn't bothered..... "all the doctors who forbad me to drink & smoke are now dead". He died aged 91.

 

[Nic Robinson]

Definitely Schubert.

How about Jehan Alain? Just 29 when the war cut him down (with the words "I've killed 16 of you Nazi bastards already. Anyone else want some?" on his lips).

A contemporary of Messiaen and hugely talented.

 

[rough edges]

Sergei Prokofiev

 

[TheDecameron]

Mahler, though Mozart’s death at 33 was a tragedy for civilisation. I felt incredibly sorry for Mahler- the death of his daughter, his marital problems and the corrosive antisemitism he faced, finally landing appointments at The Met and NYP only to be struck down by bacterial endocarditis from which he died probably at the start of a new era.

 

[TheDecameron]

Sergei Prokofiev

His worst ever career move was dying on the same day as Joseph Stalin.

 

[TheDecameron]

Sergei Prokofiev

My favourite Stravinsky quote- “Prokofiev is Russia’s greatest living composer. After me”.
Rudolph Bing ( general manager of The Met in the 50s/ 60s and a founder of the Edinburgh Festival in 1947) when someone opines “George Szell is his own worst enemy”, Bing- “not while I’m alive”.

 

[Barrymagrec]

I always liked Thomas Beecham on reading that Malcolm Sargent was touring the Far East - "Hmm, Flash in Japan".

 

[Joe Hutch]

And when asked what he thought of Stainer’s ‘Crucifixion’: ‘I think it would be a jolly good idea’.