One source says, “the management felt it could not tolerate a situation where the conductor refuses to attend a schedule event he is contractually obliged to attend. He also skipped a number of rehearsals.” The conductor himself, Brian Schembri, thundered, “Never in my life [have I] been treated so basely and disrespectfully by persons in authority who were supposed to support me in the job they themselves engaged me to do, that is to develop the orchestra to the levels that, by common consent, were hardly imaginable before.”