CAMBRIDGE — Friday night’s concert by Discovery Ensemble was smartly programmed, well conducted, and played at a high level. But the secret ingredient to its success was something else: charm.

On the surface, that may sound like damning with faint praise, or, worse, condescension. But some of the most profound music in the Western tradition bristles with wit and invention, and eliciting those qualities is both necessary and difficult to achieve in performance. It requires, above all, a light and graceful touch, and that’s where this young, gifted chamber orchestra — with its very talented music director, Courtney Lewis — excels.