In 2007, a series of concerts to mark Maconchy's centenary sparked a renewed interest in her music. In a review of The Sofa, which was revived as part of a double bill with The Departure, Andrew Porter wrote the following:

For so long, the story of Maconchy's career has been viewed as simply a tale of neglect. And yet, at times during her career, this was not always the case. In the years before Porter became a critic, she was able to achieve a remarkable level of success in spite of her sex and changing attitudes towards her music. Maconchy was far from an outlier in the early 1930s when she was routinely viewed as one of the best and brightest of the younger generation of emerging composers, beating Britten in the Daily Telegraph Chamber Music Competition in 1933. While Britten had three works performed at ISCM Festivals in the 1930s, Maconchy was not far behind with two. Even Constant Lambert could not deny Maconchy's importance when he declared in 1933, ‘There are regrettably few young composers to-day, but in Miss Elizabeth Maconchy and Mr. Benjamin Britten we have two whose future development should be of the greatest interest.’

There were, however, several factors that ultimately impeded the expansion of her career within Britain and abroad, which did indeed lead to the neglect of her works. The increased scrutiny of modernist works combined with the growth of anti-intellectualism in the 1930s created a cultural climate that was disadvantageous to Maconchy's music. In this regard, her modernism arrived at an inopportune time, as interest in continental modernism had peaked in the 1920s with the BBC's heavy promotion of modernist – and predominately foreign – music.