On her album Kammergesange (Chamber songs), Franziska Hirzel presents two composers whose names and music aren’t known by many connoisseurs of music: August Friedrich Klughardt (1847-1902) and Hans Koessler (1853-1926). Not only are the recorded pieces far from being repertoire works, but they also are of high musical substance with a trace of exoticism in them. Swiss soprano Franziska Hirzel studied at the Musikhochschule der Stadt Basel and the Internationales Opernstudio Zurich. She has performed on many European stages as well as the Salzburg Festival, Holland Festival, and Flanders Festival. Her extensive concert and opera repertoire ranges from Rameau to contemporary composers. The soprano’s cooperation as Eurydice with Pina Bausch in a production of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice took her to the Opera Garnier in Paris and the Teatro Carlo Fenice in Genova. She has recorded a number of albums, including performing alongside the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam under Pierre Boulez in a recording of Arnold Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron.