Furtwängler first started conducting as a young man. He wanted to conduct in order to perform his own music. However, he quickly became famous for conducting the music of others. The very first piece he conducted in public was the 9th Symphony of Bruckner. He conducted many orchestras before he finally became the leader of the world-famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1922. Later, he also had many other important conducting jobs. The most important was the director of the Bayreuth Festival, a very famous German music festival.