A virtuosic yet melodic salon waltz composed in the mid-Romantic era, featuring flowing lines and light decorative arpeggios. It stands out for its structural adherence to the classical waltz form while incorporating romantic expressive gestures.
Practice the left-hand jumps in the accompaniment to ensure stability for the rubato-laden melody.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Bernhard-Walzer (Op.21) is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 5.
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.
A typical performance of Bernhard-Walzer (Op.21) lasts about 5 minutes.
Bernhard-Walzer (Op.21) 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 Böhmische Polka by Franz Anton Kliegl, Böhmische Polka by Franz Anton Kliegl, Waltz No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.