When I first got this for review, as a download of a release by the Texas-based Olmos Ensemble called Made in Germany recorded in Portland, Oregon in January 2026, I had my doubts. It was readily apparent that the main work on it was Richard Strauss’s tone poem Don Quixote (1898) in an arrangement for six chamber players by Laszlo Varga (1924–2004). At first that seemed like a really dumb idea because Strauss’s everything-including-the-kitchen-sink orchestral style is such a huge part of his works’ appeal. What I wasn’t expecting is that I’d like Varga’s chamber arrangement of Don Quixote better than the orchestral original! 

I went through three classic recordings of the orchestra version: Wallenstein/Beecham (1932), Miller/Toscanini (1953), and Rostropovich/Karajan (1976). Strauss’s original intent for Don Quixote was to make it a program symphony on the model of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, with the cello “playing” Don Quixote and the viola as his servant, Sancho Panza. He also wanted the parts to be played by the orchestra’s principals, not star soloists brought in from outside, though that didn’t stop Strauss himself, as well as other conductors since, from using outside soloists. 

The big surprise in this rendition, billed as the world premiere recording of Varga’s arrangement, is that with just four other players to compete with, cellist Julian Schwarz and violist Colin Brookes (hailed in the liner notes as “master of the strong lines”) emerge with far more strength, power, and conviction than their counterparts on the orchestral recordings. Quixote’s solos and his duets with Sancho Panza are especially moving in this chamber music context. 

While I’m not that thrilled by Don Quixote itself—it strikes me as about in the middle range of Strauss’s tone poems, along with Death and Transfiguration and Don Juan, rather than at the top level of Till Eulenspiegel, Also Sprach Zarathustra, or Ein Heldenleben—this chamber version is utterly electrifying and could make you hear the overall piece with fresh ears. It also makes the piece sound more dissonant and less tonal than the orchestral version. 

The Olmos Ensemble is a Texas-based group of players originally founded in 1994 and drawn from the San Antonio Symphony, though according to the liner notes they’ve since recruited musicians from elsewhere in the U.S. as well. Their five core members are Eric Gratz, violin; Mark Teplitsky, flute, Ilya Shterenberg, clarinet; Jeff Garza, French horn (remember Anna Russell’s joke that “the French horn, which is German, is called that to distinguish it from the English horn, which is French”); and Julian Schwarz, cello. Colin Brookes and pianist Elizabeth Dorman are listed as guest artists. They play superbly together and have the tight interplay one expects from a great chamber group. 

Aside from the Strauss/Varga Don Quixote, the program includes two shorter works from composers who began their lives and careers in Germany. The opener is a Theme and Variations for solo flute by Ruth Schonthal (1924–2006), beautifully played by Mark Teplitsky. Like Laszlo Varga, Schonthal had to flee the Nazis to survive and have a career. She ended up in the U.S. and studied at Yale under fellow German expatriate Paul Hindemith, and in her later years she gave composition lessons to people like Lowell Liebermann and Stefani Germanotta (who’s far better known today as pop megastar Lady Gaga). Theme and Variations is a haunting piece owing a lot to Claude Debussy’s 1913 Syrinx. Then again, it’s difficult to imagine any piece for solo flute since Syrinxthat doesn’t owe something to it. 

The third work is a six and one-half minute Nocturne for flute, horn, and piano by Rudolf Tillmetz (1847–1915) which the Olmos Ensemble apparently chose for this album because it was published in 1898, the same year as Don Quixote. Tillmetz was a German flutist, teacher, and composer who had studied with Theobald Böhm, inventor of the modern flute. (Debussy’s Syrinx was apparently the first piece by a major composer for the Böhm flute.) It’s a surprisingly somber piece, especially if your idea of a nocturne has been conditioned by Chopin’s 21 for piano or Debussy’s three for orchestra. 

Made in Germany is a superb collection of chamber pieces by an ensemble of people that know each other’s strengths and play well to them. It’s especially recommendable for the Laszlo Varga arrangement of Strauss’s Don Quixote that gives the work a radically different character from what we’re used to in the version for orchestra.