I looked up the system requirements for Finale (v26) and theyre quite reasonable: a 2+ core CPU, 4GB RAM minimum. So you would want a host machine with at least 4 cores, or 2 cores with hyperthreading (which yields 4 effective cores), and probably 8GB RAM. You should reserve 2 virtual cores and a few GB of RAM for the host to run in while the VM is active.
As to how many Windows programs run successfully in VMs, almost all do in my experience, with the following significant caveat: Real-time processes generally do not perform flawlessly, because the VM only has a percentage of the hosts attention. So audio playback might suffer unless you are able to specify to the host that the VM must get full control of the audio functions. This could be a problem for Finale if you play the music back through that program.
Thanks so much—I really appreciate your thoughtful and informed reply!