George Hall writes in the International Classical Record Collector Summer 1999 Edition.

Schubert's Winterreise; Pearl GEM 0033, 68 minutes from RCA Victor and American Columbia originals; recorded 1940/41

Though not the first woman to sing Schubert’s cycle (Elena Gerhardt preceded her), LL was the first to record it complete--though partly for Victor and partly for Columbia, and with a gap of more than a year between the sets for each company. Pearl collates them here but inevitably some discrepencies of ambience and balance remain. What is surprising, however, is the consistency of LL’s performance. In her early 50’s at the time of the sessions, she was winding down her operatic career but her work as a recitalist was burgeoning into a mission. She devoted 15 pages to Winterreise in More Than Singing, her 1945 book on the interpretation of song, and many of the points she makes therein had earlier been put into practice in her recordings.

A few signs of vocal wear were easily accommodated into her interpretation, and Lehmann's was in any case a voice made to express the careworn spirit. Yet even so many subtle gradations she finds within her basic timbre to encompass the dire experience of Schubert’s emotionally destroyed journeyman are remarkable: the exhaustion in her tone in “Rast” is palpable. Judged purely vocally, this is a finely managed performance, though as an interpreter Lotte Lehmann clearly values expression over literalism. As she enjoins on performers in her commentary: “the listener must have the impression that the cycle is just being created at this moment---that it is you who write the poems, you who compose the music.” Of very few singers could that be said, but Lotte Lehmann is certainly one of them.