Paolo Litta's Ballata-Ciaccona fuses the narrative scope of a ballade with the repetitive, bass-driven structure of a chaconne. It is distinctively intense, utilizing heavy textural layering to build dramatic momentum.
Managing the endurance required for the powerful chordal passages is the main hurdle.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Ballata-Ciaccona is rated Henle level 7 of 9 — late advanced repertoire, roughly ABRSM grade 8 and above. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 9.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 7 — meaning you can already play level 6–7 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 Ballata-Ciaccona lasts about 8 minutes.
Ballata-Ciaccona 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 Bourrée fantasque by Emmanuel Chabrier, Allegro de concert by Frédéric Chopin, Allegro de Concierto by Enrique Granados — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.