His symphonic works: a Piano concerto, his first suite, his first symphony, and his scores for the ballet: "Greek Carnival, Le Feu aux Poudres, Les Amants de Teruel", received international acclaim. In 1957, he won the Gold Medal in the Moscow Music Festival; President of the Jury was Dmitri Shostakovitch. In 1959, after the successful performances of Theodorakis's ballet "Antigone" at Covent Garden in London, the French composer Darius Milhaud proposed him for the "American Copley Music Prize" - an award of the "William and Noma Copley Foundation", which later changed its name to "Cassandra Foundation" as the "Best European Composer of the Year". His first international scores for the film "Ill Met by Moonlight" and "Luna de Miel", directors: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, were also very successful: The "Honeymoon" title song became part of the repertoire of The Beatles.