Tarquinio Merula’s early Baroque work is a fascinating example of chromatic exploration in the pre-tonal era. It emphasizes irregular harmonic progressions and intricate contrapuntal movement.
The primary challenge is the execution of non-diatonic intervals with clean Baroque-style articulation.
Comparable difficulty and character — good candidates for what to learn next.
Capriccio cromatico is rated Henle level 4 of 9 — intermediate repertoire, roughly ABRSM grades 5–6. In the RCM system it corresponds to about level 6.
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 Capriccio cromatico lasts about 3 minutes.
Capriccio cromatico 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 'Werde munter, mein Gemüte' by Johann Sebastian Bach, Bourrée h-Moll by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, Capriccio di Durezze, F 4.09 by Girolamo Frescobaldi — see the full similar-pieces list on this page.