With his semi-peripatetic background the German American composer Charles Loeffler is one of classical music’s waifs and strays. Born near Berlin as Martin Karl Löffler in 1861, his family moved to Alsace, then to Ukraine, Hungary and Switzerland. As a violinist he studied in Berlin (with Joachim no less) and Paris before, in 1881, he emigrated to the United States. 

There he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra as assistant concertmaster from 1882 to 1903. Increasingly recognised as a composer, he was often incorrectly identified as a Frenchman due to the influence on his music of Franck and Debussy. An erudite artist, his circle of friends included John Singer Sargent (who painted his portrait), Fauré, Busoni and latterly Gershwin. He died in Medfield Massachusetts in 1935.

For reasons beyond the scope of this review, most performances of his music were historically confined to the US. Recordings have tended to end up on American labels or been included on compilations of Americana, like Robert Treviño’s excellent Americascapes album (Ondine ODE1396-2), which included the stirring extended tone poem La Mort de Tintagiles....