Kopylov gained a reputation as a symphonist and composer of songs. Rachmaninoff was not altogether convinced that he was a gifted symphonist. It is as a symphonist that Vaughan Williams is best known. The triumph restored Rachmaninoff's sense of self-worth as a symphonist. The other, "Sibelius the Symphonist" (1956), was Downes's last book, published posthumously.