The Un-important people.

Frank (1822 - 1890)

Pretty much insignificant composer from Belgium. He does have a couple popular pieces however - the Prelude Choral and Fugue, Prelude Aria and Finale, and Prelude Fugue and Variations. Notice they all have preludes. Frank was an organist, and his music is significant organ influences, such as continued use of pedal points with lower octaves and counterpoint. He made great use of chromaticism, mostly through counterpoint - something he was quite good at. He had very interesting colorful harmonic doohickeys.

Gabriel Faure (1845 - 1924)

He had a rough life. No one ever liked his music, and even now, he music is noticeable, but still not very significant - a shame because it is very interesting music. Faure took weird stuff to a whole new realm, and I feel he was about 20 or 30 years ahead of his time. Faure's harmonies are just wayyy out there - most of the time being completely unfunctional, simply drifing from one place to another, usually connected by some sort of rythmic contour which fills sound within the piano. His music is quite impressionistic, and wasn't appreciated until late in his life. He wrote much more than Frank for the piano: 13 barcarolles, 5 impromptus, 13 nocturnes, and 8 brief pieces. There is also a widely appreciated Theme and Variations I believe.
My thoughts on Faure - I feel that he was very much ahead of his time. A memeber of the salon crew, it seems from my understanding that his music just didn't quite fit it. You compare his music to that of Chopin, Liszt, and any other salonist of the day and you'll find the music sounds nothing alike, Faure's music being much more distant. I think that had he been born about 30 years later, his music would be much more popular today.

Eddie Grieg (1843 - 1907)

Alright Norway!!! Representing with Grieg!
Great guy, great music, very Romantic in nature, with tons of folk elements in much of his music (especially the lyric pieces, but many in the Sonata as well, and even a few in the concerto!). I also find it interesting that his name is quite widely known, even though he also did not write very much for the piano. The most popular piece being the concerto, other than that, the sonata, the ballade, and a hell of a lot of lyric pieces. Most people havn't even played some of the lyric pieces, and yet they remain popular. Some are good, some not so much.

Folk elements - Grieg incorporated folk elements in almost all of his piano music, a sort of nationalistic trait of his. The lyric pieces are all "folky" in nature, as intended, but Grieg also manages to slip folk themes into the Sonata and Concerto as well. In the concerto, the opening theme in the piano, the falling half step, major third, then major third, minor third alternating is apparently a folk theme! Even the first theme is quite folky in nature. Percy Grainger - probably one of the only famous Australian pianists to the day, was praised by Grieg for playing his concerto with the most "Norwegian" quality, better than any Norwegian pianist could. Grieg coached Grainger with the concerto and a few rare recordings of Percey Grainger's piano rolls exists today. In the concerto, Grieg manages to incorporate folk elements, virtuosofy them, and make them flashy, so theres something everyone could love...