This is an alternate catalog reference for the same Ornstein Ballade, characterized by its pioneering use of aggressive, dense pianistic clusters. It serves as an avant-garde bridge between Romantic emotionalism and 20th-century dissonance.
Developing the physical endurance required for the extended, fortissimo chordal sections is essential.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballade, SO 108 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, SO 108 lasts about 9 minutes.
Ballade, SO 108 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, S108 by Leo Ornstein, Ballad (Das Geisterschiff) by Carl Tausig, Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albéniz — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.