Similar in scope to other ballades by St. Clair, this piece emphasizes wide-ranging expressive gestures and contrapuntal layers. Its structure is episodic and highly narrative in nature.
Attention to hand independence is critical when moving between the polyphonic textures and melodic peaks.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade No.1 for piano is rated Henle level 6 of 9 — advanced repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 7–8. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 8.
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 Ballade No.1 for piano lasts about 6 minutes.
Ballade No.1 for piano 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 Ballade No.1 by Richard St. Clair, Ballade No.2 by Richard St. Clair, Ballade No.2 for Piano by Richard St. Clair — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.