Leander Schlegel was a Dutch composer whose style aligns with the late-Romantic German tradition. His Ballade is a song-like, intimate piece emphasizing harmonic warmth and melodic grace.
Aim for a seamless connection between melody notes and accompany figures to create a truly singing tone.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade (Op.2) 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 (Op.2) lasts about 4 minutes.
Ballade (Op.2) 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.2 by Leander Schlegel, Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat major by Franz Liszt, Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor by Enrique Granados — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.