Kleiber retired from concert life in the early 1990s, occasionally reappearing for private or benefit concerts. For one such event in Ingolstadt, instead of the usual fee, he received a new Audi made to his specifications. His performances were meticulously rehearsed, but often seemed spontaneous and inspired. In the opinion of many of his colleagues and audiences, he was an eccentric genius whom some placed among the greatest conductors of all time despite the paucity of his appearances.[4][18][19][20][21]
He was buried in the Slovenian village of Konjšica near Litija in 2004 together with his wife Stanislava Brezovar, a ballet dancer, who had died seven months earlier.[22] They had two children, a son Marko and a daughter Lillian.