This is a challenging virtuoso piece that follows the structural tradition of the Romantic ballade. It requires significant command over dense harmonic textures and dramatic pacing.
Focus on the execution of polyrhythmic layers while maintaining a singing tone in the melodic lines.
Ballade No.4 (Op.48) is rated Henle level 8 of 9 — concert repertoire, roughly diploma level. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 10.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 8 — meaning you can already play level 7–8 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.4 (Op.48) lasts about 11 minutes.
Ballade No.4 (Op.48) is available as free public-domain sheet music on IMSLP — the score is linked directly from this page.