Short Takes

CLASSICAL

Brooding Triumph

Imagine a symphony at once brooding and luminous, tragic and triumphant, spun from a single unending melody in three long, seamless slow movements. Here it is, the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" by HENRYK GORECKI, newly released on Elektra Nonesuch, with David Zinman conducting soprano Dawn Upshaw and the London Sinfonietta. The tenebrous string texture is punctuated by Upshaw's ethereally intoning a 15th century Polish lament and, later, a mother's dirge for her murdered son, whose words were inscribed in 1944 on the wall of a Gestapo prison. The result is chilling, moving, unique. With the collapse of communism, Poland's reclusive Gorecki, 59, is just now finding his way into the international spotlight. May it shine upon him.

CINEMA

Shear Bliss

Inspired by the seductive majesty of a coiffeuse's half-exposed breast, 12- year-old Antoine discovers his vocation: he will become THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND. Decades later, in another barber chair, Antoine (Jean Rochefort) meets Mathilde (Anna Galiena), "the woman with whom I knew I'd spend my life." Mathilde knows it too; in his Basset eyes she sees erotic ingenuity and unconditional love. Both are avid for the moment the shop door closes "so we can drown in the ocean of peace we love so much." French director Patrice Leconte, whose fine Monsieur Hire also dealt with romantic obsession, has devised a chamber fable about a man's infantile charm and a woman's nurturing sexuality. The movie is like the couple's love: pure, brief, passionate, heartbreaking.

BOOKS

Sorting Through The Maze

Oddly, he wasn't a great standup comedian. He was funny in several Broadway roles, but doing the same thing every night bored him. He was unbeatable at drinking and telling stories all night in bars, but they don't pay you for that. Where Jackie Gleason really was the Great One, as he called himself with no undue bashfulness, was as the bus driver Ralph Kramden in his long- rerunning TV show, The Honeymooners. In THE GREAT ONE: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF JACKIE GLEASON (Doubleday; $22.50), Time's theater critic, William A. Henry III, sorts amiably through the maze of lies the funnyman wove around his tangled life, including one woozy story about two newlyweds and Gleason, all drunk, and a goat that may have been sober.

POP MUSIC

Message Meets Beat

Originally the darlings of Manhattan's neo-disco scene, the members of DEEE- LITE burst into the musical mainstream two years ago with a debut album of thumping, synthesized rhythms that sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. Infinity Within, the group's new release, maintains the momentum. Super D.J. Dmitry Brill and Towa "Towa" Tei produce exuberant mixes that slam along at up to 130 beats a minute, and singer Lady Kier Kirby handles the vocals with a newly polished self-assurance. This time out, the trio has added some substance to its style with politically correct lyrics on safe sex, voter registration and the environment. The deee-lightful result: good message, great dance beat.

TELEVISION

A Family Reveals Its Secrets

"I'm gay," Philip Benjamin blurts out to his parents. "I just didn't think it was fair for you not to know such an important part of my life." His mother responds, "Keeping certain secrets secret is important to the general balance of life." His father Owen cries quietly. He too has a secret; he too is gay. Before THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES plays out, Owen will reveal that secret, permanently altering the family's fragile balance. This BBC adaptation of David Leavitt's novel, airing June 24 on pbs, transposes the setting from New York City to London. Graced with intense, subtle performances, the tale remains compelling, but the change of locale distances already remote characters and undercuts the work's emotional force.