Henning Mankell was a Swedish composer whose music often displays Nordic harmonic characteristics. This ballade is an introspective piece focused on atmosphere rather than technical display.
Effective pedaling is essential to maintain the atmospheric resonance of the harmonic shifts.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade No.1 (Op.6) is rated Henle level 5 of 9 — late intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 6–7. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 7.
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 No.1 (Op.6) lasts about 5 minutes.
Ballade No.1 (Op.6) 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 Henning Mankell, Ballade No, 7 by Henning Mankell, Ballade No.5 by Henning Mankell — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.