I have seen some pianists trying to make their modern piano sound like a harpsichord or an organ, all in an attempt to be more 'historically accurate'.
Well, I would never do that and here is why:
Back when Bach, Scarlatti, Mozart and even Beethoven wrote their music, the instruments they played were vastly different from the modern pianos we are playing now.
Piano, in any form, did not even exist in Bach's and Scarlatti's time !
Mozart for example, wrote his piano music for instruments that had ONLY five octaves ! [For reference, modern piano has seven and a quarter octaves.]
Beethoven, although among the first generation to grow up as pure pianist, has not been happy with the pianos available at his time. He dreamed about a more robust-sounding instrument, with much bigger range of volume and range of attack, and more durability.
If a modern piano was available at their time, I am certain that all those great composers would delightfully use it to its full capacity.
If we wanted to be historically accurate however, then we would have to play on the harpsichords or pianos from the time the music has been written (if we could find any).
SINCE we are playing on modern instruments, it makes more sense to make 'modern' adjustments to the music we’re playing, which means using both pedals, half-pedal effects, variety of volume and key-attacks, legato, several kinds of staccato, etc.
One final point to add is that using pedals and variety of volumes and attacks is the soul of the modern piano performance. It makes sense to follow our own musical intuition and use the instrument in its full capacity, in order to let the music breathe and come alive, to express as wide range of moods and emotions as possible, from comedy to tragedy and everything between, which could not be accomplished on the instruments from the times pre baroque, baroque, and classical music was written.
To try to make piano sound like a totally different instrument and 'downsize' our performance .... ?! Why ? We should either play on old instruments, or play piano as it should be played, using all its possibilities.
Listen to Beethoven's 'Moonlight' sonata, No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 played by two excellent pianists:
~ Petra Somlai on fortepiano after Anton Walter, 1795 (historically accurate):
and
~ Maria João Pires on modern piano (using all its possibilities):
Masterly executed performances in both cases, but different sounds, and of course approaches to playing the (different) instruments. I am loving and listening to both with great interest and involvement.
Picture No. 1 (top) - modern YAMAHA piano
Picture No. 2 (bottom) - Mozart's fortepiano
Wow, that fortepiano's sound is charming, and great performance by Petra Somlai. She learned from the best though. As it is of course performance by Maria João Pires, but that was to be expected.
Thank you for your valuable insights Xenia.