Written by the conductor and composer Issay Dobrowen, this ballade is a characteristic 20th-century work with strong dramatic impulses. It utilizes a narrative structure that demands a high degree of interpretative shaping.
The player must manage the dramatic pacing effectively to ensure the narrative arc of the piece is clearly projected.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade is rated Henle level 5 of 9 — late intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 6–7. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 8.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 5 — meaning you can already play level 4–5 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 Ballade lasts about 5 minutes.
Ballade 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 Canon by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Canto de cuna para los huérfanos de España by Joaquín Nin, Ballade by Nathan Shirley — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.