This rare early work by Rachmaninoff highlights his early mastery of contrapuntal textures. It is distinguished by the signature dark, brooding harmonic palette characteristic of his later style.
The primary challenge is balancing the complex, dense chordal textures while allowing the canonic melody to emerge.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Canon is rated Henle level 6 of 9 — advanced repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 7–8. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 8.
You should be comfortable at Henle level 6 — meaning you can already play level 5–6 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 Canon lasts about 4 minutes.
Canon 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 Prelude in C-sharp minor, No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Prelude in G minor, No. 5 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ballade by Sigismond Thalberg — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.