G. Lardelli’s piece is a typical turn-of-the-century salon composition evocative of maritime scenes. It uses flowing, rolling arpeggios to mimic the movement of waves, providing a relaxed, pictorial quality.
The main challenge is maintaining a smooth, constant flow in the accompaniment while keeping the melody distinct.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Beside the Sea is rated Henle level 3 of 9 — late beginner repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 4–5. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 4.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 3 — meaning you can already play level 2–3 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 Beside the Sea lasts about 3 minutes.
Beside the Sea 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 Albumleaf No.7: Falling Daisy by the Curtain by Shuwen Zhang, Believe Me, If All those Endearing Young Charms by Irish Folk Music, Valse sentimentale, No. 6 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.