This is a lesser-known Romantic character piece by Swedish composer Henning Mankell. It exhibits a late-Romantic harmonic language that prioritizes expressive, inward-looking phrasing.
Students must focus on maintaining a long, singing tone through shifting chromatic harmonies.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade No.3 (Op.9) is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6.
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.
Ballade No.3 (Op.9) 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.5 by Henning Mankell, Ballade No. 1 by Henning Mankell, Ballade No.2 by Henning Mankell — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.