The composer Jonathan Goldstein and his wife, saxophonist Hannah Goldstein have died along with their seven-month old daughter, Saskia, after the light aircraft they were travelling in crashed in Switzerland.

Swiss police confirmed that a Piper plane which had taken off from an airfield in Western Switzerland on Sunday morning had crashed approximately 90 minutes later near the Italian border. Three bodies were recovered from the wreckage.

Mr Goldstein, who began his career as a music director for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, would go on to assist on the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear, as well as re-recordings of famous soundtracks such as the score to the director’s classic movie Taxi Driver.

In 2007 he was nominated for an Ivor Novello award for his score for the BBC/HBO film Primo, adapted from the memoirs of Auschwitz survivor Primo Levy.

As well as film and broadcast music, as the founder of the Goldstein Music Group he worked on music for high profile advertising campaigns featuring dozens of international brands, including American Express, Lexus, Sony and Tesco.

In 2013, a piece by Mr Goldstein, Magical Moments, was the Christmas number one on the UK’s classical music charts.

Ms Goldstein was a highly accomplished saxophonist, who performed under her maiden name of Hannah Marcinowicz.

A regular performer at the BBC Proms, she had played with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra  and the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

A spokesperson for the family said: "We are all devastated by the news of Jonathan, Hannah and Saskia's deaths.

"We loved them all so very much. They were so happy together and we will miss them terribly.

“We would ask the media to respect the family’s privacy at this extremely difficult time.”

A Foreign Office spokesperson said staff were “assisting the relatives of a British family who died in a plane accident in western Switzerland and are also in contact with the local authorities.”

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the plane crash.