Does this reaction require catalyst/solvent?
Just three points why omitting a solvent might not be a good idea without experimental evidence that support the contrary:


There is a reason many organic syntheses are run with reagents in a concentration in range of 0.1 to 1 mol/L; to moderate both rate (kinetics) and heat (thermodynamics) of a reaction.  The omission of a solvent for an already exothermic reaction may lead to a "runaway", where the heat suddenly generated transforms your products into a tar.  The issue regarding the heat balance often becomes important when scaling the reaction to larger batches in process chemistry.
Secondly, your product target equally is an aldehyde.  At least potentially there already is a problem (chemoselectivity) discerning one of the starting materials (salicylic aldehyde) from your product (2-formylphenyl benzoate) in respect to benzoyl chloride.  In case of a highly concentrated (neat) reaction lacking any solvent, if the reaction of the acyl chloride with the aldehyde is exothermic, you may reach a temperature of your reaction mixture so elevated that both reaction pathways became accessible instead of only one (and other not envisioned here, too).
According to the information about who sells this pricy commercial product at PubChem and how -- per gramm, instead of per millilitre -- it appears safe to assume that the product of your reaction is a solid.  Having a solvent dissolving both your starting materials as well as your product equally may offer you a reaction more complete, because the progress of the reaction is not hampered by an interface of a liquid phase (your starting materials) and a solid (your product).  It equally may lead you to a product more clean, since these grains won't contain (this much) of starting materials (occlusion).