Carlos Kleiber disliked recordings — he once said that “every unproduced record is a good record” — but those he made have naturally come to occupy a special place in recording history. Deutsche Grammophon had the good fortune to be the label with which this most charismatic of conductors was associated. Imbued with Kleiber’s characteristics of intellectual rigour, passion and perfectionism, the few recordings he did make are among the greatest treasures of the DG catalogue. In 2011, 100 members of his own profession voted Carlos Kleiber ‘the greatest conductor of all time,’ but he also remains the personification of the genius recluse — Herbert von Karajan used to joke that Kleiber would only conduct when his fridge was empty.