Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen (Dearest Jesus, my desire),[1] BWV 32,[a] is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach composed the cantata in his third year as Thomaskantor on a text which Georg Christian Lehms, a court poet in Darmstadt, had published already in 1711.

As Lehms did not provide a closing chorale, Bach chose the twelfth and final stanza of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Weg, mein Herz, mit den Gedanken".

[3] He had set a similar work by Lehms a few weeks earlier, Selig ist der Mann, BWV 57 for the second day of Christmas.

[5] Lehms imagines not a parent searching for a missing son, but more generally the Christian Soul "with whom we are expected to identify", as John Eliot Gardiner notes.

[5] Lehms did not provide a closing chorale; Bach added the twelfth and final stanza of Paul Gerhardt's hymn "Weg, mein Herz, mit den Gedanken" (1647).

He scored the intimate dialogue for soprano and bass soloist, a four-part choir only in the chorale, and a Baroque instrumental ensemble of oboe (Ob), two violins (Vl), viola (Va) and basso continuo.

[10] The dialogue is opened by the soprano as the Soul in an aria in E minor, marked lento, "Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen" (Dearest Jesus, my desire),[1] The voice is complemented by an obbligato oboe,[10] described by John Eliot Gardiner as "a solo oboe as her accomplice in spinning the most ravishing cantilena in the manner of one of Bach’s concerto slow movements".

Gardiner writes: "It is one of those duets … in which he seems to throw caution to the winds, rivalling the lieto fine conclusions to the operas of his day, but with far more skill, substance and even panache".

[4] A four-part setting of Paul Gerhardt's hymn, "Mein Gott, öffne mir die Pforten" (My God, open the gates),[1] "returns the cantata – also in terms of style – to the sphere of reverence appropriate for a church service".