New Year's Concert

The first musical event of the year in Battipaglia

The New Year's Concert has become a staple of early January in Battipaglia, located in the heart of the Piana del Sele in the province of Salerno. Hosted in the Salotto Comunale on Via Filippo Turati, the event features the Orchestra Filarmonica Campana, which brings to the city the brilliant repertoire traditionally associated with New Year's celebrations: Viennese waltzes, polkas, opera arias, and grand film scores.

Rather than a multi-day festival, this is a unique, carefully curated evening offered by the municipal administration to the public with free admission as a gesture of goodwill for the year ahead. It stands as one of the few events that enliven the city's winter cultural calendar.

The Orchestra Filarmonica Campana

Founded in 2006 as the Ensemble Contemporaneo and becoming the Orchestra Filarmonica Campana in 2013, the ensemble is one of the most active symphonic groups in Campania. The artistic and musical direction is led by Maestro Giulio Marazia, who also oversees the ensemble's concert season, supported by entities including the Ministry of Culture, the Campania Region, and the Municipality of Battipaglia.

The 2025/2026 season, titled Inclinazioni, features eighteen concerts between November 2025 and November 2026, reaching cities such as Salerno, Pagani, Caserta, Foggia, Bologna, and Rome, in addition to Battipaglia. The New Year's Concert is one of its most popular highlights and is performed in two venues: January 4th at the Circolo Unione in Pagani and January 5th in Battipaglia.

The Music

The program is designed as a panorama of the New Year's concert repertoire, alternating between three themes:

• The Viennese tradition: waltzes and polkas by Johann Strauss II, from The Blue Danube to the Annen-Polka and Thunder and Lightning.
• Symphonic and Opera works: selections from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker and famous arias by Puccini and Rossini, performed by a guest soloist.
• Cinema: film scores by Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Henry Mancini, and John Williams, which have become permanent fixtures in these programs.

Each edition features different soloists and setlists: in 2025, the evening had a more operatic and Neapolitan focus, with soprano and tenor performing works by Verdi, Tosti, De Curtis, and Di Capua; in 2026, the central theme was a tribute to Johann Strauss II on the bicentenary of his birth.

The Salotto Comunale

The venue is the Salotto Comunale, the hall within the Town Hall at Via Filippo Turati 5, used by the municipality for concerts, meetings, and presentations. It is an intimate space: its limited capacity makes arriving early highly recommended, as admission is free but subject to availability. The close-range acoustics are one of the reasons the Battipaglia audience is so fond of this evening: the orchestra is heard from just a few meters away, in an almost chamber-music setting.

An event for everyone

The concert is part of the concert season promoted by the Municipality of Battipaglia and has a distinctly popular appeal: free admission, an accessible evening time, a duration of about an hour and a half, and a deliberately recognizable program suitable even for those who do not regularly attend classical music performances. It is often the occasion where local families bring younger generations to their first symphonic concert.

Battipaglia and the Piana del Sele

With about fifty thousand inhabitants, Battipaglia is the main hub of the Piana del Sele, the agricultural area between Salerno and the temples of Paestum, known for its buffalo mozzarella and produce. The city is well-connected: the train station is a junction on the Tyrrhenian line, providing quick access to the Amalfi Coast and the Cilento National Park. Those visiting Campania in winter can combine the concert with a day trip to Paestum or a gastronomic tour of the local dairies.