This piece is a contemporary exploration of modal harmonies and dark, expressive gestures. It stands out for its complex, dense textures that require careful voicing to project the underlying narrative.
Achieving clarity in the dense, layered textures is the primary technical hurdle.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
"a la vita dia fin et al gran duolo" is rated Henle level 6 of 9 — advanced repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 7–8. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 9.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 6 — meaning you can already play level 5–6 pieces cleanly. Learning it one level early is possible as a stretch piece, but more than that usually leads to months of frustration.
A typical performance of "a la vita dia fin et al gran duolo" lasts about 4 minutes.
"a la vita dia fin et al gran duolo" is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.
Pieces at a comparable difficulty and character include Blues after Oscar Peterson by Edward Enrico Gerber, 'Ch'io mi scordi di te?' by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albéniz — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.