Nikolay Kochetov’s Ballade reflects the Russian Romantic school, incorporating soulful, Slavic-inspired melodic contours. The piece follows a free narrative structure common in mid-to-late 19th-century ballades.
Maintaining the narrative thread through frequent tempo fluctuations requires a mature sense of rubato.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade No.2 (Op.36) is rated Henle level 6 of 9 — advanced repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 7–8.
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.2 (Op.36) lasts about 7 minutes.
Ballade No.2 (Op.36) 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 Cambrian Ballade No. 3 by Joseph Holbrooke, Bajka op. 30 by Witold Maliszewski, Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albéniz — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.