This work by Polish composer Michał Świerzyński reflects early-to-mid 20th-century sensibilities within the solo piano repertoire. It utilizes harmonic language that bridges traditional romantic structures with modern colors.
Carefully manage the harmonic voicing to avoid muddy textures in the middle register.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballada is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 5.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 4 — meaning you can already play level 3–4 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 Ballada lasts about 3 minutes.
Ballada 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 Blue Passion by Carlotta Ferrari, Albumblatt by Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, Albumblad by Valborg Aulin — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.