Q 01/05

A heritage steam train from Madrid to Aranjuez is named after which fruit, handed out to passengers during the ride?

A) Cherries

B) Blackcurrants

C) Strawberries

D) Apricots

Answer · why

C) Strawberries

Strawberries from Aranjuez's market gardens once rode to the capital on this line, which opened in 1851 as only the second railway on the Iberian Peni...

Q 02/05

The Concierto de Aranjuez, inspired by the Spanish royal palace gardens, is a concerto for which solo instrument?

A) Guitar

B) Violin

C) Piano

D) Cello

Answer · why

A) Guitar

Guitar was an instrument its composer never played: he was a pianist, and this was the first work he wrote for it with an orchestra.

Q 03/05

Which exotic animals roamed the royal estate at Aranjuez from the 1580s, grazing freely and working as beasts of burden?

A) Water buffalo

B) Elephants

C) Reindeer

D) Dromedaries

Answer · why

D) Dromedaries

Dromedaries, about ten in 1583, had multiplied to some 200 by the 18th century and even survived an enemy army's occupation of the palace in 1710.

Q 04/05

Which jazz trumpeter reworked the slow movement of the Concierto de Aranjuez for his 1960 album Sketches of Spain?

A) Dizzy Gillespie

B) Chet Baker

C) Louis Armstrong

D) Miles Davis

Answer · why

D) Miles Davis

Miles Davis's version came out without the composer's permission; he was irate at first, then accepted that jazz had carried his concerto to a far wid...

Q 05/05

Which Spanish composer, blind since childhood, wrote the Concierto de Aranjuez and is buried in the town's cemetery?

A) Manuel de Falla

B) Isaac Albéniz

C) Joaquín Rodrigo

D) Enrique Granados

Answer · why

C) Joaquín Rodrigo

Joaquín Rodrigo lost his sight to diphtheria at three and wrote his music in Braille; in 1991 the king made him Marquess of the Gardens of Aranjuez.