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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Twenty Minutes

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Eclectic arts magazine programme, exploring a range of fascinating subjects

Eclectic arts magazine programme, exploring a range of fascinating people, places and events

Twenty Minutes: Wunderkind

Wunderkind

26/08/2009

BBC Radio 3 - Twenty Minutes, Wunderkind

Carson McCullers's story about the troubled life of the child prodigy.

Madeleine Potter reads Carson McCullers's classic coming-of-age story, written when she was only 19, in which she explores the pressures and angsts of life as a child prodigy.

In Wunderkind, her classic coming-of-age story, written when she was only 19, Carson McCullers explores the pressures and angsts of life as a child prodigy. Frances, a fifteen-year-old pianist, who for her whole childhood has been considered a shining musical prodigy, arrives for her lesson at her teacher's studio. Her playing has been faltering recently, while Heime, her fellow student and now rival, seems to be on the verge of an illustrious concert career. As the lesson progresses, the emotions spiral, until Frances has to face up to the fact that she might be only ordinary after all.

Carson Mccullers was one of the great writers of the American South. As a child she trained as a classical pianist but gave up her ambitions for a musical career after an emotional break in her relationship with a beloved piano teacher. In this highly autobiographical story, McCullers looks not only at the troubled life of the child prodigy, but also at the pressures and isolation of adolescence.

The reader is Madeleine Potter.
Producer: Justine Willett (Rpt).

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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