I should have made it clearer: although I've had plenty of lessons in playing the piano, when it comes to editing and production I'm entirely self-taught.  I've learned a lot from the conversations in this forum, as well as at https://forums.cockos.com/ and https://vi-control.net , but I'm by no means an expert.  So treat anything I say as a starting point for exploration, not as a best practice guide.

I did want to write something about the MIDI editing part, because I haven't seen much written on this subject.  There are lots of conversations on the VI-Control forums about "mockups", people turning MIDI files into expressive sound, but they're very focussed on orchestral music, and the techniques are quite different from what I'm trying to do on piano.

As for historical performances, most of the time I think it's good to know about the instruments and the performance practices of the composer's time. But then I want to see how that knowledge changes the way I play a modern piano.  One of the many things I love about classical music is the range of possible interpretations and the way you can get new insights into a piece.  If we try to recreate the original sounds too literally, then we're spending time in the museum, not practising a living, breathing art form.  It's good to visit the museum sometimes, but not to live there permanently.

In this case the Bechstein is an interesting compromise, almost exactly half way between Haydn's time and our own.  (In terms of sound, probably closer to a modern piano than to one of Haydn's.)

I read the article as well and start to understand a little bit all this editing business … Thanks for describing the process and the questions that arise.

I have to get used to the colours of this instrument, I'm usually not so into "historic" performances. But I agree with you that, as you write in the article, it fits well for the Haydn. And for sure I wouldn't have suspected that it is a virtual instrument if I hadn't know it before ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czs-IueztE0

Production notes at https://hanysz.net/2020/05/16/haydn-var...al-pianos/