The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center staged a noteworthy concert—only it wasn’t at Lincoln Center. Alice Tully Hall, CMS’s home, is undergoing renovation (like much of the Lincoln Center campus). So this concert was at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, a few blocks away at Sixty-fourth Street and Central Park West. You might consider this a temple of humanism, and it is beautifully built—with abundant wood. In gilt letters over the stage is a small-s scripture: “The Place Where People Meet to Seek the Highest Is Holy Ground.” Under such a banner, one has almost a duty to play well.

And the St. Lawrence String Quartet plays well. They are a group from Canada, as the name should tell you, and, in 2006, they made an outstanding recording of three Shostakovich quartets (for EMI Classics). Their guests in the CMS ...