This quintet, along with the contemporary string quintet K593, are often dismissed as second-rate works reflecting the composer's straightened circumstances towards the end of his life. However, Eisen makes the point that rather than reflecting the "Classical" ideal, they are a new path for Mozart, one which eschews surface variety for the exploration of a single motivating idea that determines both the surface and structure of the work.[1] While the slow movement is apparently a theme and variations, Eisen points out that it also takes on the characteristics of a rondo and of a sonata.
References
^Eisen, Cliff, ed. (2008). The Cambridge Mozart encyclopedia (Repr ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. p. 76. ISBN978-0-521-85659-1.
Melvin Berger, "Guide to Chamber Music", 2001, Dover