Henri-Joseph Taskin; Piano Concerto in D, Op.2 (c.1800)

Henri-Joseph Pascal Taskin (1750-1829) was a French composer. He was a nephew of Pascal-Joseph Taskin, a well-known maker of harpsichords and pianos, and apparently worked in his shop. I was unable to find much biographical information about the composer, but Pascal Taskin has a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_...
Interestingly, it lists 3 nephews, one of whom was Pascal-Joseph Taskin II, whose given birth and death years match Henri-Joseph's, so that might be the same person, but there was also a Henry Taskin, which could also be our composer here. (Lambert Taskin was the third, we can probably rule him out.) Perhaps their names and/or birth and death years were somehow conflated, or maybe it was even a collaboration?

IMSLP: https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Taski...

Movements:
0:00 - I. Allegro.
9:45 - II. Adagio expressivo.
13:57 - III. Rondo. Allegretto.

This concerto makes use of a rare feature not found on most modern instruments called a "lute pedal", which was briefly popular in France around this time. This (I believe) causes the strings of the instrument to be plucked rather than hammered, similar to a harpsichord, but meant to sound like a lute. The pedal is used briefly about 2/3rds of the way into the first movement (around 6:45), and not at all in the second, but is prominently featured in the third. If you're following the score, you'll see the markings for "le luth" (literally "the lute") indicating when this occurs, with "otez la pedalle" ("release the pedal") showing a return to normal.

Lacking a good source for what this would sound like, I opted to simply change the piano into a lute - or rather, its modern descendant, an acoustic guitar. MuseScore does have a lute sound, but I tried it and didn't care for it - it kind of sounds like each note is being hit twice and obscures the melody. I tried a few different instruments before settling on the guitar as the closest to what I think it should sound like. The harp sounded good as well, but given that these same early pianos also had a "harp pedal", I have to assume that would sound different.

Interestingly, my own upright piano has a similar after-market feature, called a "mandolin rail". By default, the middle pedal would lower a strip of felt between the hammers and strings, dampening the sound. But this strip was replaced by a series of cloth fingers with a metal rivet in them, so the sound you hear is bare metal hitting the strings instead of the felt hammers. It is similar in sound to a "tack piano", in which metal thumbtacks are inserted into each hammer, making a louder, jangly sound, meant to drown out the ambient crowd noise in old west saloons. The advantage of the mandolin rail is that, of course, like the lute pedal, you can make it sound like a normal piano again just by releasing the pedal.

Disclaimer: Yes, it's synthesized. Obviously real musicians with real instruments would be vastly superior, but this simulated performance is better than nothing at all, which is what existed previously. My greatest wish is that these videos will inspire someone with the means to arrange a real performance and hopefully record and publish it so we can hear them in their full glory. If that someone is you, or you know of an existing recording of this, please let me know and I may add a link to this description.