October 4, 1981

Although the stock market's 37-point advance last week suggests that an end to the six-month slide in prices may be at hand, some analysts say that the gains constitute little more than a correction, and they doubt that stocks will move appreciably higher in coming months. Given current interest rates and bond yields, Stewart J. Pillette of Drexel Burnham Lambert says that further gains in the Dow Jones industrial average would make stocks overpriced relative to bonds, prompting renewed sell-offs. However, while a ceiling seems to have been established, he says, uncertainty about a number of other factors - the impact of the so-called All Savers certificates on future rate movements, for example - provides considerable downside risk. He expects the market to stay in the mid-800 range for much of the current quart er, and doubts that a rally will begin until the market perceives tha t a sustained decelerati on in interest rates is under way. But nervousness in the markets is so pronounced that any bit of bad news could send stocks down again, perhaps as low as 7 50.

We were moving slowly up the sharp slope of Knocknarea, a flattopped mountain on the west coast of Ireland that sits between Sligo town and the sea. Shin-deep in heather, we had wandered away from the trail, eager to slip out of the mainstream of Sunday morning hikers. The hearty local folk - children skipping, singing and giggling, women dressed for church rather than for the trail, grandparents carrying walking sticks - seemed to charge up the steep incline, while the two of us inched along, red-faced and gasping. Above, on the summit, was our goal: a massive pile of rocks, 80 feet high, traditionally celebrated as the burial cairn of the sixthcentury Celtic warrior queen, Maeve. As we rested we looked over the green and gold view that expanded as we climbed, and saw rain clouds gathering over Sligo. They were rolling toward us - 30 seconds away, we guessed -and we hastily pulled rain gear and hats from our backpacks as we watched the storm darken a wide swatch of field and forest to our right, along Ballisodare Bay. Ten seconds away, and we imagined we could hear the rain rattling on the roof of Primrose Grange, the 18th-century farmhouse where we were staying, which was tucked into Knocknarea's lowest slope, just below us but out of sight.

BROOKVILLE CAN a university concert hall be all things to all people: a focal point for the cultural life of a community as diverse and dispersed as the Island, and a teaching tool for the education and training of young adults? The administration at Long Island University's C.W. Post Center thinks so, and on Saturday night at 8:30 Zubin Mehta will lift his baton to lead the New York Philharmonic in Mozart's ''Jupiter'' Symphony and officially open the college's new $4.4 million Concert Theater. It is ''a mini-Lincoln Center for Long Island performing arts,'' according to the hall's director, David Black. The inaugural concert, especially planned for a black-tie $100-and $250-a-seat benefit audience (reservations are still available), will tell whether the simple 170-foot circular concrete building with its high-tech interior, in violet, burgundy and red, can do the job technically.

The United States advanced to the Davis Cup tennis final today, but only after John McEnroe and Peter Fleming had come within one warning of being defaulted in their doubles match with Peter McNamara and Phil Dent of Australia. McEnroe and Fleming, the Wimbledon and United States Open champions and the world's top-ranked team, gave the United States an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the semifinal series with an 8-6, 6-4, 8-6 victory. The Americans will meet Argentina, l ed by Jose-Luis Clerc and Guillermo Vilas, in the final on Dec. 11 at an indoor arena in this country, probably at Cincinnati or New Y ork's Madison Square Garden. Although seldom in trouble against a team that had played together only twice before, McEnroe and Fleming were almost defaulted for verbal abuse, which would have meant that the three-of -five series would be deci ded tomorrow.

-------------------------------------------------------------------- Audie Bock, author of ''Japanese Film Directors,'' was assistant producer of the international film version of Akira Kurosawa's ''Kagemusha,'' and has translated Mr. Kurosawa's autobiography, scheduled for publication in 1982. By AUDIE BOCK ''Modern technology and and I do not get along,'' says Akira Kurosawa. ''My son tells me I look like a chimpanzee when I try to dial the telephone, and it would be hopeless for me to try to drive a car.'' Despite his disclaimer, the internationally famous 71-year-old Japanese director, renowned for such films as ''Rashomon,'' ''Seven Samurai'' and ''Ikiru'' has long been regarded not only as a great artist with profound influence on such younger American counterparts as Francis Coppola and George Lucas, but also as one of the movies' foremost technical innovators. Next Friday, Mr. Kurosawa will be present in New York City to introduce the first complete English-subtitled retrospective of 26 of his films at the Japan Society of New York. Mr. Kurosawa's work has been stimulating Western audiences since his 1950 ''Rashomon'' first drew attention to the cinema of Japan by winning an award at the Venice International Film Festival.