Hyperion Records

It is the Salve regina in the version for five voices (two tiple or treble parts) that is performed here. The plainchant verses are taken from Luys de Villafranca’s tutor published in Seville in 1565. Franco set ‘Et Jesum benedictum’ in two versions and we have used the second, which is for the high voices while the basses rest. Franco is expansive, one might say diffuse; he takes twenty-five bars of modern score to set the last three words, but his music is expressive and very singable.

from notes by Bruno Turner © 1990